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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



EVANGELISM 

AND THE 

Revival Work 

Rev. G.W.WILSON 

By Rev. J. W. Caldwell, 

OF SOUTHERN ILLINOIS CONFERENCE. 



With an Introduction by Rev. W. F. SHORT, D. D., President 
of Jackso nville Female College. 



And he gave some Evangelists."— Eph. iv: 11. 



How beauteous are the feet of those who bear 
Mercy to man, glad tidings to despair! 
Far from the mountain's top they lovelier seem 
Than moonlight dews, or morning's rosy beam; 
Sweeter the voice, than spell, or hymning sphere, 
And listening angels hush their harps to hear." 

Johnson. 






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PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 



1884. ^ N 



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COPYRIGHTED, 1884, 

BY 

Rev. J. W. Caldwell. 



PRESS OF 

CHAS. B- WOODWARD 

PRINTING & BOOK MANUFACTURING CO. 

911 TO 919 NORTH SIXTH ST. 

ST. LOUIS. 



^DEDICATIONS 

To the many who rejoice at the Gospel's success, 
and have found deliverance through its power, these 
pages][are affectionately inscribed by, 

The Author. 



4&ZL 



s-@ IL LUSTRATION S.^ 

Portrait of Rev. G. W. WILSON. 

Centenary M. E. Church, Jacksonville, Ills. 
Nashville M. E. Church, Nashville, Ills. 

Jacksonville Female College, Jacksonville, Ills. 



@TABLE_OF CONTENTS.© 

PAGE. 

Dedication 3 

Illustrations 5 

Preface . 11 

Introduction 13 

CHAPTERS I, II, III. 
Sketch of Life of Rev. G. W. Wilson 17 

CHAPTER IV. 

A Happy Death 36 

CHAPTERS V, VI, VII. 

Evangelism 41 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Incidents of Woodboro Revival 60 

CHAPTER IX. 
Preparatory Work, or Pastoral Effort 67 

CHAPTER X. 
Gillespie and Corrington Chapel Revivals 78 

CHAPTER XL 
Cooperation of Churches 87 

CHAPTER XII. 
Bunker Hill Revival, and Comparative Values 97 



VIII CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Preaching and Exhortation _ 104 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Collinsville Revival 115 

CHAFrER XV. 

Song and its Use 119 

CHAPTER XVI. 
Nashville Revival 131 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Prayer 134 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Jacksonville Revival. 144 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Revival Converts 157 

CHAFrER XX. 

Carlyle Revival 169 

CHAFrER XXI. 

The Convert's Influence 176 

CHATTER XXII. 

Other Meetings 184 

CHAFfER XXIII. 

The Care of Converts 188 

CHAPTER XXIV. 
Incidents 200 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Child in Revivals 20G 

CHAPTER XXVI. 
Camp Meetings 217 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Invisible Agencies 22s 

CHAPTER XXVIII. ■ 
Conclusion 240 




FREFACK. XI 



PREFACE. 



" Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spokeu, 
Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown, 
Shall pass on to ages, — all about me forgotten, 
Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have done." 

— BONAR. 

The Pulpit and the Press are among the chief 
agencies for doing good. The printed sheet may 
supplement the oral discourse, and the two may 
be true yoke -fellows in religious service. 

The Spoken Word has advantage in the mag- 
netic influence of the Speaker, but the Written 
Word in a ministry to a greatly increased audi- 
ence, in calm, and meditative mood. 

There are great possibilities in either case. 

One may by the aid the Press affords enlarge 
his influence far beyond his personal contact. 

By this means many a tender strain and stir- 
ring note, or piercing call, have been prolonged 
in all their variety of inflections. 

Aged, and feeble ones, who never saw or heard 
the Messenger of God, whose eloquence and pathos 
moved the mighty throngs, have looked with de- 
lighted eye upon the printed ^age, and caught the 
inspiration of the by-gone day and scene, and 



XII PREFACE. 

have found in this a ministry of comforting, or of 
quickening grace, not possible in any other way. 

"To speak a word in season to him that is 
weary," though it may be by the silent language 
of the pen, may prove both pleasant and helpful ; 
and at times, be one's only method of approach. 

So with this thought in mind we have written, 
hoping that something in these groupings of per- 
son, and service and subjects, might add to the 
minor agencies for good, and afford a measure of 
help where Evangelist and Pastor might never 
come. 

"The smallest bark ou life's tumultuous ocean, 
Will leave a track behind forever more ; 
. The lightest wave of influence set in motion, 
Extends and widens to the eternal shore." 

J. W. Caldwell. 

Godfrey, Madison Count*/, III., Nov. 10, 18S4. 



INTRODUCTION. 



INTRODUCTION 



The .subject matter of this volume, — Evangel- 
ism, — holds a vital relation to the world's salva- 
tion, and fills a large place in the Church's 
agencies. 

Prophecy lifts the horoscope, and foretells the 
earth's redemption, and poetry paints its regener- 
ated glory in more than Eden loveliness. 

The weary worker in the presence of towering 
forms of evil that have struck their roots deep into 
the debris of the race's depravity, and lifted their 
frowning heads to the heavens, often cries out, 
How long, O Lord ! How long ! 

The evangel of prophecy inspires faith and hope, 
and by well-directed blows, every baneful growth 
is hewn down, and the wilderness becomes a fruit- 
ful field. 

The command, "Preach the Gospel to every 
creature," implies the universal extent of human 
need, and the sufficiency of the instrumentality 
for its supply. 

The Gospel is the world's panacea, the remedy 
for all its diseases. It is to dictate civil legisla- 
tion to prevent and overthrow its wrongs ; it will 
overcome its intellectual darkness by fostering and 



XIV INTRODUCTION-. 

diffusing knowledge, and it will assuage its want 
and woe, by opening the treasures of universal 
benevolence. The enemies of the Gospel are active 
in their endeavors to destroy faith in the divinity, 
and the ultimate success of its heaven-appointed 
mission. They are proclaiming "Failure !" from 
press and platform, and are manifesting suspic- 
ious haste to give it sepulture among the effete 
and exploded systems of Paganism. They are 
already mustering their forces of culture and 
philosophy to supersede the Gospel of Christ in 
the world's amelioration and salvation. 

A successful method of opposition to this de- 
tour of our wily foe is to emblazon on our ban- 
ners the trophies of our campaign. It will quicken 
the faith and courage of the Church, and send dis- 
may into the ranks of the adversary. 

The moral regeneration of the heart and life 
of one soul, through the agency of the Gospel, is 
a proof and prophecy of the competency and cer- 
tainty of its universal conquest. But instead of 
one, millions have been marshalled as witnesses of 
its power to renew and save. 

Let the fruits be gathered and garnered in the 
store-house of the Church's literature, to quicken 
zeal and inspire courage through all her ranks. 
Every dictate of wisdom and duty demands the 
employment of the most efficient agencies and 
methods in the propagandism of the Gospel. 



[NTRODUCTION. XV 

No unreasonable conservatism can stand before 
the intelligent call of an aggressive church for the 

"more excellent way." Since the commission was 
first given by the Head of the Church almost in- 
numerable changes have been introduced in meth- 
ods and instrumentalities. 

In modern evangelism, distinctively so-called, 
the important point to guard is thai of responsi- 
bility. 

Responsibility for methods and matter is funda- 
mental in all such forms of aggressive work. 

Irresponsibility is lawlessness, is a fin in the 
reai'. 

A carte-bJanclte commission should suggest a 
spy and an enemy. Let him go forth bearing the 
sign and seal of the Church, then with letters pat 
ent from the Court of Heaven he will " make full 
proof of his ministry" in multitudes of "living 
epistles." Such we have in Rev. G. W. Wilson, 
whose abundant and successful labors have been 
herein gathered and presented by his co-laborer, 
the author. The character of the work, as to its 
arrangement, is new and pleasing. The narrative 
and dictative style is followed in alternate chapters. 
The themes discussed by the author are, in them- 
selves of vital importance, and are presented in his 
characteristically facile and pleasing manner, and 
are so happily fitted to the narrative portions as to 
make the whole a rare literary Mosaic. Mav all 



XVI INTRODUCTION. 

who read these pages arise in the strength of 
Israel's seer and say, "Here am I, send me!" 

W. F. Short. 

Jacksonville, III., Nov. 19, 1884. 




CHAPTER I. 

SKETCH OF LIFE. 

BIRTH. INFLUENCE OF MOTHER. BUSINESS. 

REMOVALS. EMIGRATION. MEETING OF BROTH- 
ERS. 

f GEORGE W. WILSON was born in New 
I Ross, Wexford county, Ireland, March 25, 
1853. He was the youngest of twelve chil- 
dren. His father was the Commander of a sail- 
ing vessel plying between Waterford, Ireland, 
and Quebec, Canada. He was of the old type 
of Wesle} r an Methodists. He died at sea, and 
was buried beneath its waves, when the subject of 
this sketch was nine years of age. This loss 
made a deep impression on the child mind, and 
one that was formulated in vows for a good life 
at that early day. The children were all trained 
religiously, and schooled to venerate the Church 
and conform to its modes of worship from their 
infancy. 

The mother was a most devoted Christian, yet 
soon, after the birth of George she became sub- 
ject to a disease that rendered her a confirmed 
invalid, and incapacitated her for active Church 
duties. Still her deep piety constantly per- 

2 



18 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

vaded the home, and her influence in mould* 
ing and shaping the religious character of her 
children was of incalculable value to them, 
and especially in the case of the youngest 
born. Thus too, doubtless many a noble 
worker, grand and successful minister and 
teacher, and many a pious Mary and careful 
Martha could bless a devoted mother for sweet 
words, pure life, and undying love, that in 
their infantile days made such a lasting and 
beautiful impress upon them, resting as a divine 
benediction on their consecrated lives. 
Many a one may say : — 

" She led me first to God: 
Her words and praj'ers were my young spirits dew, 

For when she used to leave 

The fireside every eve, 
I knew it was for prayer that she withdrew. 

How oft has the thought 

Of my mourned mother brought 
Peace to my troubled spirit and new power 

The tempter to repel ! 

Mother, thou knowest well 
That thou hast blest me since my natal hour." 

The shock from the sudden and painful loss of 
the husband and companion of so many years 
was a very severe one, and although borne with 
Christian grace and fortitude, was one from which 
her frail nature never recovered. She gradually 
sunk under the crushing weight of sorrow and the 
influence of disease, and on the 13th of January, 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 19 

1864, she passed beyond the reach of shadows 
and death into the realms of endless sunshine. 
Shortly before she died she called the little 
George to her bedside, and laying her hand upon 
his head, gave him her parting blessing, and asked 
him to meet her in heaven. He says : " I prom- 
ised her I would, and promised from the fulness 
of my young heart. How I loved my mother ! 
And how her hallowed life shines out at every step 
of my pilgrimage in these later years as one of 
the brightest examples of godliness, patience, and 
love. Well do I remember at eventide how she 
would call me to her, place the family Bible on 
her knee, and, as I sat on my stool at her feet, 
she would explain to me the wonderful truths of 
God's word. Thus in my childhood's day the 
sweet truths of the gospel were poured into my 
listening ear by the voice of my praying mother. 
O ye who have godly mothers to hear your tale 
of sorrow, to press you to her loving bosom, to 
teach you heavenly truths, and lead your feet up 
the shining way, heed them, prize them, follow 
them." 

Through the blessing of God in using human 
instrumentality, very many of the best of men, 
and most successful workers, have come to 
their piety and position among religious laborers 
through the influence of the mother. Many may 
say :— 



20 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

"And if I e'er in heaven appear, 
A mother's holy prayer, 
A mother's hand and gentle tear, 
Have led the wanderer there." 

Until his mother's death, George was continued 
in school, and made rapid progress in his studies, 
but with this sad event there came a change of all 
the family plans. George was removed and ap- 
prenticed to Todd, Brown & Co., dry goods mer- 
chants of Dublin, in whose employ was his 
brother-in-law, in the cloak department of the 
house. His stay here was brief, however, on ac- 
count of the death of this brother-in-law, through 
whose influence he had been employed, and under 
whose supervision he had been placed. From 
Dublin he was taken to London and placed under 
the care of an elder brother, John, who is at this 
time a traveling preacher of the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in the Cincinnati Conference. For 
a year he was employed in the book house of 
Brown & Co., in Paternoster Row. Here he was 
surrounded with vice in its aggravated and multi- 
plied forms, as seen in the great cities. Yet the 
admonitions and prayers of godly parents followed 
him in all his environments of sin. He was not 
a Christian, but had not forgotten to pray, and 
when he did any act he knew was in violation of 
the religious teaching of his pious parents, he 
could find no rest until he sought and found for- 
giveness. 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 21 

He had made very considerable progress in 
learning the business in which he was employed, 
and was gaining favor with his employer, and 
giving promise of complete success in this calling, 
when his brother found reasons for changing his 
position, and accepting a situation in Dublin, and 
fearing to leave one so young, and so exposed, alone 
in the great city, he took George with him, and 
found employment for him as salesman in a dry 
goods store. In the fall of 1866 two of his sisters 
made up their minds to come to America, and he 
being desirous to accompany them, they consented, 
and all embarked at Londonderry for Quebec, 
which place they reached in September. Thence 
they proceeded to Buffalo, N. Y., where they met 
the oldest brother, whose face he had never seen, 
though he was now thirteen years of age. He 
says of this happy meeting : — 

" It would be hard to imagine my feelings as I 
found myself in the embrace of a brother whose 
name had been familiar to me from my childhood, 
and from whose hand words of greeting had often 
come to the bedside of my invalid mother, bring- 
ing joy, or sorrow, as the contents of these letters 
were eagerly read. How often I had longed to 
know him face to face ; and now with tears of 
gladness we clasped each other with feelings it 
seems to me akin to those experienced by loved 
ones in their greetings on the other shore," 



SKETCH OF LIFE OF 



CHAPTER II. 

ON A FARM. TEMPERAMENT. TEMPTATIONS. 

REVIVAL . CONVERSION . IMPRESSIONS . 

IS health at this time was poor, probably 
the result of long and close confinement in 
shops and stores, and on this account he 
sought and found employment on a farm. Of 
this kind of work he had no knowledge, yet was 
active and ready, and soon made himself useful 
in this new field of effort. He was kindly cared 
for, had light employment, and succeeded in do- 
ing enough to procure board and clothing. His 
health rapidly improved, and with pleasant sur- 
roundings he spent here some of the happiest days 
of his young life. He has and ever will have 
delightful memories of this country home, and 
the kindly family with whom he lived. 

After spending some time in the employ of Mr. 
Smith, his brother James buying a farm near 
Buffalo, he went and lived and labored with him 
until his fifteenth year. He now began to plan 
for the future. He was not decided in regard to 
any course, nor yet seeing clearly as to any chosen 
line of work, but thinking these matters over as 
boys will do. He was not wild and reckless, as 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 23 

many boys are in this formative period in life ; 
attended meetings regularly, was a lover of 
Sunday-school and the society of Christian peo- 
ple, yet was a sinner violating many of the com- 
mands of God, and conscious of being in an un- 
saved condition. Had not a foundation been laid 
in childhood, broad and deep, by pious parents 
and Christian brothers and sisters, in the Sunday- 
school, in the class-room, and the home, he might 
easily have drifted off into the sinful course of 
life so common to thousands around him. 

" Happy the home where prayer is heard, 
And praise is wont to rise ; 
Where parents love the sacred word, 
And live but for the skies." 

Yet a Divine Providence alone could secure one 
so endangered by inward tendencies, and so drawn 
by outward attractions. His temperament was 
such as to fit him to be a leader, in that he was 
amusing and mirth-provoking, and he found him- 
self made an important factor in social gatherings 
in the creation of amusements for the hour. He 
had no tendency to the glaring vices of the 
young, and the very instincts of his nature re- 
belled at the thought of profanity, intemperance, 
dancing, gaming, and lewdness. Yet there were 
times when against all the teachings of the home, 
and school, and Church, and voice of conscience, 
he went into forbidden paths. 



24 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

And what sinner has not had the experience 
that Paul insists is common, viz. : "The good 
that I would I do not ; but the evil which I would 
not, that I do." 

Once he was induced to spend the Sabbath day 
in hunting, — a sin so common in some localities, 
and so indulged in by non-churoh-going classes. 
For this his conscience was so aroused as to cause 
him to fear some accident would befall him be- 
fore he reached his home, and from which he was 
led to promise solemnly, if his life was spared, 
he would never be guilty again. 

" Manlike is it to fall into sin, 
Fiendlike, is it to dwell therein, 
Christlike, is it for sin to grieve, 
Godlike, is it all sin to leave." 

In February, 1868, a Mr. Benstead paid us a 
visit in a kind of missionary round amongst his 
neighbors. His heart was warmed with revival 
influence, and he was going about through the 
community calling on the people and inviting 
them to a meeting being held in St. Mark's 
Methodist Church, Elk Street, Buffalo, N. Y. 

" Fond of singing, and hearing the young peo- 
ple sing as they were on their way to church, I 
consented to go. As we started to church they 
commenced singing those songs so well calculated 
to stir the heart of the careless sinner, awakening 
thoughts of the danger and misery of living in 



11EV. G. W. WILSOtf. 25 

sin, the wonderful grace of the Saviour, and the 
delight and joy of the believer. I enjoyed the 
singing until one sitting by my side said to me, 
'Are you a Christian'? I answered, ' no,' and 
ceased to sing. The power of a word, who can 
tell ! What trains of thought are started by a 
simple question, a suggestion, hint, or kindly ad- 
monition ! 

' A nameless man, amid a crowd 
That thronged the daily mart, 
Let fall a word of hope and love, 
Unstudied from the heart : 
A. whisper on the tumult thrown, 
A transitory breath. 
It raised a brother from the dust, 
It saved a soul from death. 
O, germ! O, fount! word of love! 
O thought at random cast! 
Ye were but little at the first, 
But mighty at the last!' 

" At the meeting I thought the sermon was all 
for me. Bushing, thronging to the spot, came 
the memories of former clays, the dying mother's 
blessing, my unfulfilled promise, and the godly 
admonitions of pious friends. My heart melted 
as wax before the fire, under the influence of the 
preaching, and my mental responses were all in 
harmony with the fervid appeals of God's minis- 
ter. I desired to go at once as a seeker of re- 
ligion, but hesitated until my brothers, James and 
William, went forward to renew their consecration 



26 SKETCH OF LITE OF 

vows. Then I waited no longer, but at once pre- 
sented myself as a penitent by their side. I 
sought for pardoning mercy, and not in vain, for 
my struggle soon ended in glad release from bond- 
age, and in the peace that comes with sense of 
sins forgiven, and I could say : — 

' All praise to the Lamb ! accepted I am, 
Through faith in the Saviour's adorable name; 
In him I confide, his blood is applied, 
For me he hath suffered, for me he hath died. 
Not a doubt doth arise, to darken the skies, 
Or hide for a moment my Lord from my eyes : 
In him I am blest, I lean on his breast, 
And lo! in his wounds I continue to rest.' 

" The cross now had a wondrous beauty to me. 
Duty was a pleasure. I walked in happy com- 
munion with God. The Bible seemed a new 
book to me, and the means of grace were my 
delight." 

The young believer started out on a religious 
career, amid activities betokening the services that 
would engage his after years. Now, though so 
young, only in his sixteenth year, he was found 
conducting cottage prayer meetings, and doing 
such religious work as to lead directly on to the 
larger fields of ministerial and evangelistic effort. 
At this early day the voice of God seemed to be 
calling him, and the finger of God pointing to the 
"fields white to the harvest," and an inward 
desire to preach the gospel to the perishing multi- 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 27 

tudes around him, became a passion of his being. 
He found himself happy in active service, and in 
a devotion that led to an outspoken fealty to the 
cause of God, and positive effort to save the souls 
of men. 




28 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 



CHAPTER III. 

AN INCIDENT. ITS INFLUENCE. LOSS OF ENJOY- 
MENT. NEGLECTS. SICKNESS. PROMISES. 

RENEWED ACTIVITIES AND BLESSING. LICENSED 

TO PREACH. REVIVALS. MARRIAGE, &C, &C. 

N incident occurred sometime after his con- 
version changing for a time the whole phase 
of his religious life, and casting an unhappy 
shade over years that ought to have been the bright- 
est and happiest of his whole career. At the funeral 
of a young friend and classmate of the Sunday- 
school, no preacher being present, not a word was 
said, and silently the body was laid in the grave. 
A strange feeling came over him. He had never 
spoken on such an occasion, yet it seemed mani- 
fest that some religious person ought to have led 
in some kind of religious service. Yet no one 
had the courage to do so, and he, after some con- 
siderable mental struggle refrained from saying 
or doing what the Divine Spirit had evidently im- 
pressed on his mind as his duty. He promised 
silently and solemnly at the conclusion of this 
scene that on any future, like occasion, he would 
follow the leading of Providence, and not shirk 
from a plain, religious duty. Riding home after 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 29 

the burial with a Christian lady, in whom he 
had great confidence, he disclosed his feelings, 
telling of the impressions he had experienced, and 
expecting to find sympathy, and, possibly, helpful 
counsel. But greatly to his surprise, he had no 
answer save a smile of disapproval of one assum- 
ing such a responsibility, "That smile," he has 
said, "kept me back three years from my divinely- 
appointed mission, and well nigh cost me my 
soul's salvation." 

What a word or look can do ! How they can 
help or hinder ! How " wise," as well as " harm- 
less," shoujd Christians be! 

" The deeds we do, the words we say, 
Into the still air they seem to fleet, 
We count them, ever past; 
But they shall last : 
In the dread judgment day, 
They and we shall meet!" 

The picture on that face was not easily or soon 
forgotten, and the impression was all unfavorable 
to the happiness or success of the confiding and 
childlike mind that had looked to the older and 
more experienced Christian for instruction and 
for guidance. 

" Whoso shall offend one of these little ones, 
which believe in me, it were better for him that a 
millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he 
were drowned in the depths of the sea." 

Like Jonah, he now " fled from the presence 



30 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

of the Lord," and like him, too, found an en- 
vironment of danger and trouble wherever he 
went. He left the community where he had lived 
, so happily, and where so many had been inter- 
ested in him, and where religious life dawned so 
auspiciously upon him, and soon found himself 
amongst strangers in the great West, at Lawrence, 
Kansas. " His feet had well nigh slipped," and 
he was in the ' ' way that was dark and leads to 
death." He learned by sad experience that the 
" way of the transgressor is hard," and that 
neither happiness, nor safety, could be hoped for 
apart from duty. In business there was failure ; 
in body, sickness ; in mind, unrest , in heart, cold- 
ness and gloom, and over all and in all, a sense 
of God's displeasure. 

" Thou leadest us through darkest pain, 
Back to the joyous light again." 

Laying on a sick bed, seemingly not far from 
the line, stretching as a dim border between the 
seen and unseen worlds, there was cause, and 
time, for sober reflection, for penitential prayer, 
and for vows for constancy, and faithfulness to 
his convictions in the future, if God should spare 
his life. Soon a hopeful change occurred ; health 
and peace were restored, and the happiness of 
former days returned again, and once more the 
soul in obedient trust went forward in religious 
duty. Here, amid those chastenings, in this time 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 31 

of trial, in this peril hour, at this crucial point in 
life, he made a more full and complete surrender 
of all, a most thorough consecration of time and 
talents to God's service than at any former period, 
and found in his own experience a richer, deeper 
measure of Divine love than he had ever known 
before. 

" Love, born in hours of joy and mirth, 
With mirth and J03 r may perish ; 
That to which darker hours gave birth 
Still more and more we cherish. 
It looks beyond the clouds of time, 
And through Death's shadowy portal; 
Made by adversity sublime, 
By faith and hope immortal." 

Leaving Kansas he came East to St. Louis, and 
here engaged as a traveling agent for a book 
house. His work led him over the thoroughfares 
mostly between Burlington, Iowa, and Memphis, 
Tenn. Stopping often at intermediate points, 
wherever he had opportunity even in his transient 
stay, he attended religious services, and shrank 
not from any Christian duty. 

In October, 1873, he was licensed to preach, 
and from that time forward when occasion favored 
he publicly ministered to the people as a licentiate 
of the Church. 

During a camp meeting held near O' Fallon he 
met, for the first time, Miss Jennie E. Thurston, 
a graduate of Mrs. Blair's Seminary, at Lebanon. 



32 8KETCH OF LIFE Of 

Between them a mutual attachment sprung up, 
which resulted in their marriage August 18, 1874. 

Mrs. Wilson proved to be an excellent wife, 
and shared uncomplainingly the hardships of an 
itinerant life in the various charges to which Mr. 
W. was appointed, until the Master closed her 
earthly work in her triumphant death at Donnel- 
son, Ills., January 1, 1882. 

To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were given four chil- 
dren, — May Alice, Carrie Etta, Nellie Lee, and 
John Walter. The eldest, May Alice, died of 
membranous croup, at Donnelson, December 1, 
1881. Mrs. Wilson and this child rest in College 
Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, Ills. 

Mr. Wilson after his marriage continued his 
business as agent for the St. Louis book house 
mentioned in a former page. While traveling in 
the South in September, 1875, he was invited to 
hold a series of meetings at Whitehaven, Tenn. 
Here he spent a week, finding a field of great in- 
terest, and seeing a gracious revival of God's 
work among the people. Thirty-two persons 
made a profession of religion, many backsliders 
were reclaimed, and an awakening power per- 
vaded the whole community. At this meeting 
a "dancing club" came under the gracious influ- 
ence, many of them becoming religious, forsaking 
the " pleasures of sin," the amusements of the 
dance, for the sweet delights, the substantial joys 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 33 

of Christian life. The people, becoming so much 
interested in the work, and the congregation en- 
larging from time to time, they arranged for and 
built a large arbor for the daily gatherings. On 
Sabbath about six hundred persons were present, 
and spent a day in delightful religious devotions. 
Being called to Lebanon, Ills., on account of the 
death of Mr. Robert Thurston, his father-in-law, 
a meeting of wonderful interest was abruptly 
closed. 

Rev. Mr. Shimmim, since deceased, labored 
heartily and usefully in this meeting. 

Once in visiting Burlington, Iowa, he was de- 
tained for several days on account of a revival 
which commenced from the preaching of a ser- 
mon on Sabbath afternoon, in the Swedish Church 
of that place. Eleven persons professed religion 
at the meeting on Sabbath evening, and before 
the series of meetings closed thirty persons pro- 
fessed conversion. Thus God owned the efforts 
of His servant, and in these minor meetings gave 
a prophecy of the enlarged usefulness of succeed- 
ing years. At various places providential open- 
ings seemed to occur, giving opportunity for the 
employment of his special gift for revival work. 

During the time he had been engaged as a traV- 
eling agent, he had acted in the capacity of a local 
preacher, yet had always felt convictions concern- 
ing evangelistic work and the duty of entering 

3 



34 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

the regular ministry. With these impressions 
following him in all his journeyings, he had de- 
cided that upon an opening being made for his 
employment, he would give himself wholly to 
ministerial work. Finding such an opportunity, 
through the recommendation of the Lebanon 
Quarterly Conference, he at once embraced it 
and discontinued his secular business. Having a 
meeting, however, in progress in Memphis, Tenn., 
he failed to be present at the session of the 
Southern Illinois Conference for examination, 
and was consequently not received as a proba- 
tioner in the Conference until the following fall. 
He w r as employed, however, by the presiding 
elder of the Mt. Vernon District as a supply at 
Ullin, where he spent two years as pastor, being 
appointed by the Bishop in the fall of 1876. He 
served the Church as pastor at Benton one year, 
Tamaroa two years, Donnelson two years, and 
Litchfield Circuit one year. 

There were gracious revivals of religion in all 
these charges, and many were brought into the 
Church under his labors. The past year his work 
has been wholly of an evangelistic character, and 
many and extensive revivals of religion have oc- 
curred in connexion with this earnest and nearly 
continuous ministry. The sketches in the suc- 
ceeding pages will indicate the places where his 
labor has been bestowed, the character of his 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 



35 



work, and the measure of success with which the 
Divine blessing has crowned it. 




36 SKKTCH OF LIFE OF 



CHAPTER IV. 

iEEMING it desirable that more than a 
mere mention should be made in these 
pages of Mrs. Jennie Wilson, whose early 
death was more than ordinarily triumphant, and 
whose life and death aided in giving shape to the 
evangelistic career of her husband, we have in- 
serted this chapter on : — 

" A HAPPY DEATH." 

Lift not thou the wailing voice, 
Weep not, 'tis a Christian dieth. 
Up where blessed Saints rejoice, 
Ransomed now the spirit flieth ; 
High in Heaven's own light she dwelleth, 
Full the song of triumph swelleth; 
Freed from earth and earthly failing, 
Lift for her no voice of wailing.'" 

On Christmas day, 1881, there came as God's 
gift to this Christian family a son, their first son, 
to gladden their hearts and make the day a doubly 
memorable one to them. And on this anniversary 
of the coming of the Saviour, what thoughts this 
new advent would awaken, what prospects for 
the future open up, what hopes of manhood's 
usefulness inspire, and what promises of parental 
thoughtfulness and eareful oversight call forth ! 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 37 

The day was auspicious, the husband had rejoiced 
in the manifestations of Divine goodness and 
power in a morning meeting, and husband and 
wife, before the day closed, in the mutual happi- 
ness of the birth of their first son into the world. 
But strange are the mutations of time ! Wonder- 
ful are the alternations of sunshine and shade, of 
light and darkness, of joy and sorrow, or glad- 
ness and gloom ! How hope and fear alternates, 
sweet and bitter commingle, and pleasure and 
pain touch the same thin line ! No one can tell 
what even a "day may bring forth": of its 
treasures to cast into the lap, its sorrows to pour 
into the heart, its joys to fill our mind, its beau- 
ties to charm us, its ills to goad or grieve us, ii> 
disappointments to perplex or distress us ! 

" Such is life: all fair to-day, dark to-morrow, dull and gray: 
Changing ever like the moon, or the fleecy clouds of June, 
Now in lightness, now in gloom; now the cradle, now the 
tomb." 

From promise of recovery to health in nature's 
accustomed season, there comes in a few days an 
omen of danger, — a fever. It is not the light 
and transient heat of excitement, nor the paroxys- 
mal glow that, pendulum-like, is the swing to 
that farthest extreme from chill, but that which 
rises to a fullness and moves in steadiness and 
strength, seizing with relentless hold upon the 
victim, already weakened by overexertion, en- 



38 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

feeblcd by painful efforts, and ready to succumo 
to a fresh and vigorous foe, and hastens its fatal 
work in spite of every human effort. Whether 
others perceived what the issue of this unequal 
contest would be or not, there was One who saw 
the doom impending in this struggle. God gave 
intimations, then the clear disclosure to the suf- 
ferer that the end was nigh. She saw an early 
and glad release from the ills and pains of life to 
her, but sad bereavement and life-long loss to 
those behind. Friday night, December 30, at 
10 o'clock, she called her husband to her bedside, 
saying to him, " I am going to die ; I want you 
by me, that I may talk to you." 

(Here I give the account nearly as may be in 
the words of Bro. W., who penned the expres- 
sions, conversations, and incidents in his diary.) 

Then she said : "It is glorious, angels form 
an arch over me with their wings, and May (the 
little girl that had died a year before) is at the 
study door waiting for me. Don't you see her" ? 
I said no, dear, I do not. She said : " Go to the 
study door, and see her ; now don't you see 
her"? Again I said, no, I cannot. She said: 
" I am sorry that I cannot make you see her." 

Her's was the almost spirit vision, ours the 
dull and mortal one. To her the veil was partly 
rent ; to us it was thick as walls of human habita- 
tion, To her the others, those of that spirit 



REV. G. W. WILSON. 39 

land were nearest ; to us these little human sor- 
rowing children gathered around her bed. But 
such are God's ways of fitting us each for our 
allotted sphere, — she by assimilation for the 
heavenly, we by our unchanged mortality for our 
earthly state. She might see the angels ; 1 musl 
see human beings. She might forget time and 
sense: I must be awake to earthly calls, and 
though I might rejoice in her clear vision of the 
skies, and the triumph of grace in her happy 
death, I must invoke Divine aid for my burdens, 
to be doubled from this hour, and for light for 
my future shadowed pathway. She reminded her 
mother and myself of our human weaknesses, and 
exhorted us to greater watchfulness and care in 
our coming life. She then sung as she never 
sung before : 

" Wont that be a happy meeting, 
Over on the other shore," &c. 

Singing and talking she passed the night. Said 
she had been praying all morning that her mind 
might be perfectly clear in the last moments of her 
life. She exhorted me to Work ! Work ! Work ! 
saying, "thousands of souls are going down to 
death." She seemed to be impressed with the 
idea that I would be greatly aided in my work, 
and find large success in striving to win souls to 
Christ. Said: "If there is any such thing as 
poming back to earth, I will be with you." Too]; 



40 SKETCH OF LIFE OF 

Carrie and Nellie, kissed them, and prayed God 
to bless them, telling Carrie, the oldest, to be 
obedient to her Pa, and meet her in heaven. 
When she came to the infant she desired he 
should be baptized before she died. Rev. Mr. 
Freese, of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 
administered the ordinance. When asked to 
name the child, she called him John Walter. She 
joined heartily in the prayer of consecration, and 
afterwards caressed the child with a mother's 
fondness. Prayed for Lebanon, her home be- 
fore she was married, and for her brothers, say- 
ing : " They were not saved by my life ; perhaps 
they will be by my death." Then, after bless- 
ing all, some thirty persons in the room, said, " I 
am done," asking us to sing, which we did well 
as we could in our sorrow, she joining us : — 

" My latest sun is sinking fast, 
My race is nearly run," &c. 

And as the sun of heaven was going down, so, too, 
the sun of life Avas setting to her, while the more 
glorious " Sun of righteousness" was rising with 
undimmcd and indescribable splendor, to set no 
more forever. At .5:40 p. m., that memorable 
New Year's day, she left us to go where there 
is no night, to be " forever with the Lord." 
'■ And her last fond, lingering look is given 

To the love she leaves, and then to Heaven ; 

As if she would bear that love away 

To a purer world and brighter day." 



REV. G. \V. WILSON. 41 



EVANGELISTIC WORK. 



CHAPTER V. 

" Fly abroad, mighty Gospel ; 
Win und conquer, never cease; 
May thy lasting wide dominions 
Multiply and still increase; 

Sway thy scepter, 
Saviour, all the world around." 

'HE human mind is of such natural cast, as to 
find its employment, as well as delight, in 
very varied fields. It is not satisfied with a 
tame round of scenes, engagements or exercises ; 
running 'in grooves of wearisome monotony vio- 
lates the very laws of our being, and our endow- 
ment of great intellectual activity seeks for breaks 
in the chain of life's doings ; delights in some 
jostling along the human roadway, and even col- 
lisions sometimes may end happily the tiresome 
sameness of a journey insipid and dull. 

" The rapid, and the deep, the fall, the gulph, 
Have likenesses in feeling and in life. 
And Life, so varied, hath more loveliness 
In one day than a creeping century 
Of sameness." 

So God' s order is to foster the love of the di- 
verse, under proper religious restraints, and give 



42 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

field of great scope for the employment of gifts 
that, seemingly, are almost at antipodes in the 
mental make-up of men. The desire for variety 
is found to exist in human minds in regard to re- 
ligious work, as well as in reference to any of the 
ordinary business affairs of life. This desire is 
an ingrained element of human character, some- 
timos appearing in demonstrative and exacting 
forms, yet always existing in greater or less 
vitality, and likely to continue - as a mental force 
to the end of time. It need not be denominated 
" a love of novelty," but rather is, when applied 
to religious life, a demand for the complement of 
Gospel forces and Christian workers. So the 
whole New Testament scheme suggests and pro- 
poses an evangelism of many agents, a variety 
of offices, numerous endowments and gifts, and a 
vast array of possible appliances and forces. 

Let us not fall into the error of supposing that 
Divine Wisdom arranged an economy in cramped 
forms, or by procrustean methods, and rigid lines 
of Churchly order, unchanging 'mid changing 
scenes, and diversified conditions and times. 
No, the system is one of wondrous flexibility in 
its forms and externals, in the non-essentials, and 
these are many; and in nothing does its pre- 
eminence appear more strikingly than in this. 
1 1 ciice we see the great elevation at which it 
stands, above; any devisement that it would have 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. * 43 

been possible for human wisdom to have reached. 
Man would have arranged for a oneness, in visible^ 
and externals, that would at once have disclosed 
its earthly origin, and revealed it in its human 
weakness. As it is, it docs in nowise narrow and 
circumscribe its force, to accommodate the Jew 
or Gentile, to the exclusion of the other. This 
freedom makes the possibility of all the evangeli- 
cal forms of Christendom. Yet it gives to none 
pre-eminence, only in that it may be possible for 
some denominational body to possess by its more 
conformed methods and greater activity, a degree 
of spiritual vitality and power for good, not pos- 
sible to bodies less evangelical, and more given to 
formal than spiritual service. So a possibly pure 
Church may very much vary her plans. And a 
demand for variety in Church methods and agents 
is neither unwise nor unscriptural, nor yet, under 
wholesome restraints, likely to be productive of 
other than good and desirable results. So change 
in agents in religious work becomes the common- 
est of things. One set may succeed in one line, 
another prove efficient in a different sphere, and 
still another where both of these might fail. So 
" He hath given some apostles, and some 
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pas- 
tors and teachers, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ." Thus 
indicating a purpose to supply the extremes of 



44 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

demand, with classes of agents best suited to 
peoples and times. And every period of church 
history has furnished its quota of every rank, to 
make up the whole of God's grand army, and 
keep the church in measure supplied with agents 
of such qualification and order as times and con- 
ditions might demand. 

It is not the purpose in presenting these 
thoughts on evangelism to underrate any class of 
religious workers, nor to depreciate one by an 
overestimate of another, but rather to magnify 
each in his own proper place as the servant of 
God. The meteor, shooting athwart the plane- 
tary pathway, with liquid glow, lighting momen- 
tarily the recesses of the vast arcs above us, gives 
us a fulness of brilliancy to compensate for its 
evanescent stay ; and its lurid glare serves to 
break the monotony of the quiet, changeless 
splendor of the distant suns. And the irregular, 
seemingly divergent lines traced by the flight of 
comets, are doubtless in perfect harmony with 
cosmic laws, and just as certainly conform to or- 
dered processes as the revolutions of the planets, 
or the changes of the seasons. The processes in 
grace are just as harmonious, though as seeming- 
ly divergent. The Gospel ministry, in all its or- 
ders, and offices, and functions, and the Chris- 
tian Church, in all its members, and services, and 
devotions, is a religious cosmos, more beautiful, 



OF REV. <;. W. WILSON. 45 

and complete in harmony than that of the ma- 
terial universe. The pastor, preacher, teacher, 
prophet, evangelist, and worker, each according 
to Divine appointment, finds his appropriate place, 
moves in his proper sphere, and exerts his attrac- 
tive force, as certainly in the Christian system, 
and economy of grace, as sun and moon and stars 
in the fields of space. No, " God is not the 
author of confusion, and here as elsewhere, he 
reigns in Divinest order. 

Keligious society is constructed on such princi- 
ples as that its coherence depends upon harmony. 
Order is a law of church life, and system and 
churchly regulations are essential to church work, 
but none of the fetters of mere conventionalities 
can, or ought to hold men in beaten pathways of 
routine service, whose very religious being began 
amid fiery scintillations, and glow r ed from its 
very dawn in Nature's appointed erratic lines. 

St. Paul became a "law unto himself" in his 
ministerial plans of w^ork and fields of effort ; and 
so now, in these latter days, a man like William 
Taylor must "assume an orbit more grand and 
wide than the organic dimensions of the church 
" that gave him birth, and in which he is spend- 
ing his ministerial life. 

So, too, John Wesley found himself straitened 
by the organic forms and conventionalities of the 
church that «:ave him birth, and in which he 



4(i EVANGELISM, AttD REVIVAL WORK 

spent his life ; but by more than ordinary force 
of will and religious power threw off the fetters 
of mere formalism, and asserted his independ- 
ence of human regulations and the churchly cus- 
toms, of what was then a subservient ministry. 
To preach the Gospel he left the chapels and took 
the fields, and passing the bounds of parochial 
limitation, he declared " the world is my parish," 
and with heart aglow with the Saviour's love, he 
went as a blazing meteor through two hemis- 
pheres, showing to benighted men the pathway 
from earth to heaven. And still men rise of 
Wesley's type, and go whither the churches send 
them not. Their number, too, increases ; and 
their importance demands a more formal recogni- 
tion now than in any former period of the 
church's history. The religious world seems 
more than ever satisfied that they are indispensa- 
ble to the complement of Christian workers. 
Theirs is not an irresponsible, disorganizing work, 
standing apart entirely from that of Christian 
pastors. If so it might well, and would be uni- 
versally, feared and frowned upon. Their's sup- 
plements the pastor's work. And in so far as it 
is not supervised by those in care of churches, it 
may prove worthless, and even hurtful to religious 
life. The pastor must exercise careful oversight, 
must heartily co-operate in evangelistic effort, 
and must give direction more or less emphatic, in 



OF REV. C. W . WILSON. 47 

the whole process of revival work. To properly 
husband the fruits of evangelistic work, he must 
make his own personality so felt as to become 
identified with all its varied processes, and sub- 
jects of its influence as far as it may be possible 
for him to do. In varied ways, and for many 
reasons, the evangelist may succeed where the 
most pious and earnest pastor could only fail. 
Evangelists have methods, erratic as they may 
seem. These are not apparent to the unobservant, 
hence their forcef ulness is much increased. They 
are different from the settled pastor, and by 
striking out in new lines of effort, or diverging 
into unfrequented paths of action, or adopting un- 
expected methods, the Evangelist gains a respect- 
ful and thoughtful hearing of his message, and 
compels by novelty of presentation of truth, one- 
ness of purpose, and a persistent demand for 
present action, a wide, and, sometimes, universal 
attention. He too, often (I will not say God's 
people in this act toward their pastor, wise or 
well) commands and secures a hearty co-operation 
of the members of the Church, and gains in the 
outset one important factor in successful revival 
work, — the positive captaincy of that militant 
force at hand, where the pastor could not. 

We whose lots are in the defined sphere of 
pastors, settled it may be or appointed, and run- 
ning as the wound-up time keeper, until the ma- 



48 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

chinery needs readjusting by the annual, biennial, 
triennial, or quadrennial session, feel, too often, 
that any attachment to the system of which, in 
most senses, we are the complement, is detractive 
of our perfection as agents of all Church work. 

Alas ! for us, we are narrow and selfish, un- 
consciously, it may be. Yet too often in some 
measure under this unhappy influence fearful of 
encroachments on the domain of our clerical pre- 
rogatives, and apparently inclined to prefer that 
nothing should be done in aggressive effort, and 
actual conquest, if we might not do it ourselves, 
or get ecclesiastical credit for it when done. 

How much would have been lost to religion, to 
the churches of England, and the pastors as well, 
if John Wesley had been as tame in his work, and 
orderly in his methods as the parish priests of 
his day? But by his irregularity, his new 
methods of action, his pursuance of plans not ar- 
ranged for in denominational polity, he was en- 
abled to reach the outlying masses hitherto un- 
provided for with gospel privilege. God had 
given him a special talent, and unusual opportuni- 
ties, which he wisely employed and faithfully im- 
proved. It would have been a misfortune to the 
world for a man of such quality to have buried 
himself as a parish priest under the rubbish of 
church conventionalities. 

But the "white fields," waving their invita- 



OF REV. O. W. WILSON. 49 

tions to the gospel reaper, found Wesley gladly 
answering to the call, and, regardless of the prac- 
tice of men who, subservient to regulations and 
churchly order, were suffering the grain to perish 
in the fields, and of his own loss of reputation by 
non-conformity, he threw himself enthusiastically 
into the work of saving souls. He planned as 
God gave him wisdom to, worked as God gave 
him strength, and went forward as Providence 
opened the way to the most remarkable success 
known in history ; multitudes believed, and hun- 
dreds of dull and lifeless churches were aroused 
to unwonted activity and devotion. 

Wesley conformed sufficiently to retain his 
church relationship and his ministerial orders, but 
never called a halt of the grand hosts he mar- 
shaled to certify his orders by a dress parade. 

Much of this independent conformity is found 
in connexion with the movements and work of 
that grand revivalist and missionary, William 
Taylor. His converts are in every land, and his 
supervision of workers is world-wide. 



50 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



evangelism-continued. 
chapter vi. 

"E'en now, perchance, wide waving o'er the land 
That mighty angel lifts his golden wand, 
Courts the bright vision of descending power, 
Tells every gate, and measures every tower, 
And chides the tardy seals that yet detain 
Thy Lion, Judah, from his destined reign." 

'WO classes of Evangelists were found in 
New Testament times, and have continued 
throughout the subsequent history of the 
Church. The one represented by Timothy in 
apostolic times, and his successors in the pastorate 
of modern times by such men as Spurgeon, Cuy- 
ler, Pentecost, J. O. Peck, and many others of 
this class. The other comprising those mentioned 
where the Apostle says, " some Evangelist," and 
represented by Philip in the early Church, and 
Moody and Sankey, and Knapp, and Harrison, 
and Whittle, and a host of others of the present 
time. 

Says a late writer: "The recent prominence 
which has been given to special Evangelism ; the 
large force of workers, ministerial and lay, which 
it now marshals, and the success now attending 
its movements in the conversion of sinners, the 



OF REV. (i. W. WILSON. 51 

building up of believers, and the quickening of 
the churches into increased spiritual activity, all 
entitle it to the confidence and appreciation of 

the Church. The work done for (iod and souls 
through the agency of special Evangelism in 
Great Britain, in American, indeed throughout the 
world during the last ten years has been marvel- 
ous and glorious. It is grand to see Moody, 
Whittle, Hammond, William Taylor, and a legion 
like them, moving forward under the tremendous 
anointing power which propels them in their 
soul-saving enterprises and endeavors. We are 
acquainted with a dozen or more accredited and 
successful Evangelists, whose calls for service are 
far in excess of their time or strength. Pastors 
are asking to be directed to evangelistic workers 
whose services are available, who a few years 
since held very unfavorable opinions of specialists 
of this class." 

"Methodism in spirit, is Evangelism. Yet it is 
in an anomalous attitude as regards such workers, 
for in its organic structure it has no place for 
Evangelists. It has a constitutional place for 
pastors, missionaries, editors, chaplains, secre- 
taries, and agents, ad libitum, in the role of its 
appointments from its effective ministers, but can- 
not appoint one of its ten thousand traveling- 
ministers to do the work of an Evangelist exclu- 
sively. What a reflection upon our system" thru 



52 EVANGELISM, AXD REVIVAL WORK 

William Taylor, nourished in the Church to be a 
spiritual Samson, must be discarded organically, 
and, to do his great Evangelistic work, must be 
compelled to ask a location !" May we not expect 
that somewhere, sometime, our coining Evange- 
lists may find a door opening by authority, to 
give them access as naturally and as readily to 
their chosen fields, as any pastor has to his? Is 
not our slowness to move in this direction a 
source of constant loss to the Church, and in some 
sense an excuse for irresponsible men to go forth 
as disturbers rather than promoters of good? 
Should not churches provide for the seemingly 
erratic to operate, under certain limitations and 
restrictions? A born Evangelist cannot be cir- 
cumscribed to parishes. The enthusiasm, that 
glows in fiery heat, finds its fullness of sphere 
within no geographical bounds, and the intense 
activities that are begotten in such a soul mast 
have widest scope for employment. With such 
there will be constant desire to go out, go over, 
go beyond, and fill the world, if possible, with 
ringing notes of gospel gladness. The awakening 
of preachers and churches has been a necessity of 
other times, is of ours, and may be of all times. 
The demand for the class of workers represented 
by Wesley, and Whiteficld, and Summerfield and 
Maffitt, will surely continue as long as churches 
and preachers become lethargic and dull, and un- 



OF REV, G. W. WILSON. 53 

saved sinners go unwarned thronging the dark way 
to death. It is not assumed that every minister 
ought to be an Evangelist in the broad sense in 
which this subject has been viewed. 

Assuredly God calls men to contentment and 
success in pastoral work, and a given field of 
effort may have all the elements of variety, and 
objects of interest, and means for development, 
and openings for usefulness that may be desired, 
or that one may be fitted for by taste, or natural 
endowment, or grace, and so here find legitimate 
work, and an appointed sphere. Such as these 
"Stand in their lot" in every place, and make 
Evangelists possible, and husband their work 
when done. 

" A skillful workman lie 
In God's great moral vineyard; what to prune 
With cautious hand he knew; what to uproot, 
What were mere weeds, and what celestial plants — 
Which had unfailing vigor in them — knew. 
Nor knew alone; but watched them night and day, 
And reared and nourished them till tit to be 
Transplanted to the Paradise above." 

Such is the work and province of the pastor ; 
and certainly he who occupies well, and does in 
his own department his allotted part of Christian 
labor, and fills his sphere in the galaxy of religious 
lights, will hear the "Well done !" sounding just 
as sweetly, and find the "Crown of glory" as 
complete an adornment as the one who moved in 



54 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

wider sphere with greater opportunities and 
responsibility. But looking at the question of 
adaptations, and of success, one may see special 
reasons for the existence of that particular class 
of workers, denominated Evangelists. The more 
one follows a given line of work, the more he 
usually becomes attached to it, and feels at home 
in it, and almost out of place in any other depart- 
ment of effort. And to be a Eevivalist, and per- 
fected in Evangelistic work, demands, in a sense, 
an education and training for it ; and if not just 
what these words imply, yet a devotion to it, and 
a study of it such as almost to exclude thought of 
the varied duties of pastoral life, and unlit one 
for them. 

Kev. Mr. Eaton has said on this subject, "Good 
pastors, as a rule, are not successful Revivalists ; 
Revivalists, as a rule, are not successful as pas- 
tors ; the Lord has given the Church both ; they 
supplement each other." 

The Revivalist understands the work in his 
special department. So the pastor, too, that of 
his own. The Evangelist keeps prominent in his 
mind a religious revival, a present awakening, a 
spiritual quickening, and works for its attainment 
by sermon, or exhortation, or song, or prayer, 
and makes it the one focal point of all his efforts. 
Not so the pastor; he must be more general, 
more divided in the contemplation of conditions 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 55 

and wants, and must suit his ministrations to a 
variety of subjects and states. So with fitness 
for one thing, there is, in a measure, a disqualifi- 
cation for another, and no man has the men- 
tal or moral capacity, or gracious ability, to 
make any and every performance successful alike, 
or attain perfection in all. Pastors have great 
diversity of gifts, and can only attain pre-eminence 
in that line for which they are specially fitted. So 
we find one a leader in moral reforms, another in 
Sabbath School work, a third, a successful 
builder of churches, and a fourth, living in nearly 
continuous revivals. 

"Now there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same spirit." " And there are differences of ad- 
ministrations, but the same Lord." " And God 
hath set in the Church apostles, prophets, teach- 
ers, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." 
So by wise provision for every department, and 
perfect adaptation of agents for every work, he 
has ordained a complement of agencies equal to 
all conditions, and demands, and peoples, and 
times. 



56 Evangelism, ANb revival work 



PROCLIVITIES TO EVANGELISM. 




CHAPTER VII. 

(^(jfrR. WILSON, Providentially guided, enter- 
ed the field of ministerial effort through 
regular forms, and by proper Church 
authority. Methodism opened the way for him 
to regular pastoral work. From the Southern 
Illinois Annual Conference he went to fill appoint- 
ments for successive years. Each field found 
him interested in, working for, and largely living 
in the midst of revivals. And such was God's bless- 
ing upon him in conducting such meetings, that he 
seemed naturally led to that particular department 
of work. Then the temperament was in closest 
harmony with his taste for, and his delight in 
Revivalism, in contradistinction to the regular 
pastoral work. Impulsive, ardent, having many 
of the better characteristics of his countrymen 
delighting in the excitement and episodes of re- 
vival seasons, it is not strange that he should in a 
measure find himself drifting into this department 
of ministerial service, and making it nearly a 
specialty. One-ideaism, in many senses is indica- 
tive of weakness, and may often lead to unhappy 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON 5t 

results ; especially may tend, in religion, to fa- 
naticism in its wildest and most dangerous forms. 
But if it be the one-ideaism leading and looking 
to the conversion of souls, then it may consist 
with the most thorough soundness of mental and 
moral constitutions of men. This leads into 
heaven-ordained and natural channels of religious 
service, where even the one thing is complete with 
variety and novel changing phases. Mr. W. 
is not unevenly balanced, though giving all time 
and thought to departmental work. That he is 
fitted for Evangelism, and not for all forms of 
pastoral work, ought not to be considered so 
much a fault, as a gift. 

Speaking to the writer of his work on various 
charges of which he had had pastoral supervision, 
he said : "It always seemed to me in some sense, 
when my revivals were over, my work there was 
done." 

The last year of his regular appointment by 
Conference was to the Litchfield Circuit, and on 
this begun that chain of revivals commencing at 
Woodboro, including Clyde, Gillespie, Corrington 
Chapel, Bunker Hill, and ending just before Con- 
ference with Iuka. In these meetings there were 
over 400 conversions, large ingatherings in various 
churches, and a great quickening of God's people 
in all these communities. 

It had now become apparent that Providence 



58 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK. 

was leading into the large field of Evangelistic 
work, and that if the voice of the Master was not 
heeded as it came ringing in his ears, through re- 
quests of pastors, invitations of Church Boards, 
and advice of ministerial friends, then the result 
would be the measurable withdrawal of that gift 
of revival endowment, and of great loss to the 
Church of the continuous effort of one so success- 
ful in this department of labor. 

So at the Conference at Belleville in the fall of 
1883, after due deliberation, he asked for the 
appointment of Conference Evangelist, but failing 
of this — the Bishop deciding he had no authority 
for making such an appointment — he request- 
ed a supernumerary relation, with the avowed ob- 
ject of doing Evangelistic work. To this, as 
sketches of revivals in succeeding pages will 
show, he has given himself in continuous effort, 
with more than his former success. His choiee 
seems wisely taken. Fields have opened for use- 
fulness, and many pastors and churches have 
anxiously sought his assistance. His career in 
Evangelistic work has opened fairly, and gives 
much of promise for time to come. Surely with 
humble trust, single aim, and steady going in the 
paths that seem ordained, much may be hoped 
for from future efforts if his life is spared. 

No class of workers are more exposed to temp- 
1. -it ions, to pride, and feelings of self-importance 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 59 

than these, who influence such numbers to begin 
a religious life, and from whom they so often 
hear expressions of gratefulness, if not of flattery, 
and deceit. Still grace has kept, and may keep 
them safely amid strong temptations. 
" As silvery clouds at eventide 
Float on the balmy sale, 
Nor seem to heed the stars they hide 

Behind their fleecy vail, 
So lowly sense, of highest worth, 

Fresh graces o'er him threw; 
For he, unconscious, lived on earth, 
Of all the praise he drew." 




60 



EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



INCIDENTS OF WOODBORO 
REVIVAL. 



By Contributor. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

jpHIS meeting was held in the bounds of the 
•' Litchfield Circuit, November and December, 
1882. There were seventy-three profes- 
sions of religion. Some of these conversions 
were wonderfully clear, and seemed to be accom- 
panied with unusual power ; . then others had a 
very different phase, and were expressed in what 
seemed a sweet calm trust in Jesus, or a joyf ul- 
ness giving a radiance to the face, while others 
again rejoiced amid their falling tears. Some of 
those more than ordinarily bold in sin were 
reached first, and are to-day courageously follow- 
ing Christ. One of these, the first who professed 
religion, was a young man, 18 years of age, of 
dark complexion, straight in form as if of Indian 
mould, had been a leader of the neighborhood in 
sin, and so was a character of the community 
somewhat marked. He had been accustomed to 
preach and pray for the boys when they had 
mimic camp-meetings in the woods. He was very 



OF REV. <:. W. WILSON. Gl 

profane, unusually wicked, and had given his 
parents great pain, and caused them many hours 
of anxiety. A very Goliath in sin, although his 
name was David. He came to the 10:30 a.m 
service, which was a plain indication of awakened 
interest. The writer asked him if he came to 
seek religion, and with great deliberateness he 
answered, " Yes, Sir." 

The theme for Bible reading was, "God's 
love." Bro. Wilson, seeing his apparent inter- 
est, addressed a question or two to him personally. 
Asked him " If Jesus died for him?" "Yes," 
was the ready response ; then, " Will you accept 
Him as your Saviour?" and again came the firm, 
short reply, "Yes, Sir." With this the work 
was done, and he afterwards declared that he be- 
lieved before he knew it. His fearless devotion 
since to the cause of Christ has proven that his 
conversion was genuine, that it was not a mere 
assent to the questions propounded, but a surren- 
der of his heart to God, and an acceptance of 
Jesus as his personal Saviour. 

A brother of the above found not so easy a 
task before him in his efforts to obtain forgive- 
ness. He was what we term a "moral man." 
He wanted to be a Christian, but had no feeling 
on the subject. He was finally prevailed on to 
go forward to the altar and seek for feeling, 
manifest a desire to do his duty with the assur- 



G2 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

ance that God would fully perform his promise. 
Very soon after kneeling, his experience in this 
respect changed, and the emotional pre- 
vailed, his heart was full, his eyes 
suffused with tears, and he was crying out 
in prayer. Urged to lay his burden on the 
Saviour, who invites the heavy laden to Him, he 
was at length enabled to do so, found acceptance 
and relief, and testified that Jesus had delivered 
him, and that the clouds had disappeared. His 
sister came, and having in mind his saying he had 
no " feeling on the subject," asked him, " How 
do you feel?" With this there came the power 
of temptation, the vanishment of peace, and the 
reign again of unbelief. He had another struggle 
then, of all night at home, and all the next day 
before he found relief and blessing. 

One young lady was very angry because her 
sister had gone to the mourners' bench, and in 
the most profane and unlady-like manner declared 

she would rather go to H ; but God used 

this as a means of her awakening, for when she 
came to seriously look at the wickedness of a heart 
that could go to such lengths in sin, she became 
alarmed, and at the next opportunity she went 
forward to the altar of prayer, and was gracious- 
ly accepted of Him who rccciveth sinners, and was 
forgiven. 

Although so many were choosing the better 



OF EEV. O. W. WILSON. 63 

part, and turning their faces heavenward, there 
were found others who were rejecting gracious 
offers, opposing the spirit's influence, and some 
proceeding so far in sin as to indulge in deliberate 
scoffing. 

One person especially was unblushing in his 
attacks, and would sneer and scoff at those who 
approached him on the subject of religion. 
Finally he became so much offended as to discon- 
tinue his attendance at the meetings altogether 
Five months after the meetings closed he was 
killed in a destructive cyclone passing through 
that locality, and thus in a moment hurried into 
the eternal world. 

An old class leader who had for years been 
living in a cold, backslidden state, and had not 
been to church for years, was reached and brought 
back to God through the conversion of his young- 
est daughter. One evening he had not retired to 
rest when the family came home from church, and 
asking about the meeting, the little girl said, "O 
Pa, it is such a good meeting, and God has 
blessed me, too." The next service found him 
there, confessing his neglect, and seeking his lost 
joy, which God restored, completing the happy 
experience of the whole family; so, too, verify- 
ing the words of inspiration, " A little child shall 
lead them." 

W. B was a young man whose besetting 



64 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

sins were dancing and drinking. He had been 
dangerously sick the preceding winter, but had 
vowed if God would raise him from his sick bed 
he would give him his heart and serve him the 
remainder of his life. God did restore him, and 
he attended the meeting. He received an in vita 
tion to seek the Saviour, and also an invitation to 
attend a ball the following: evening:. The even- 
ing came and he started to go to where the dance 
was to come off ; yet a voice seemed to say to 
him, " Pay thy vows to the Most High," so he 
concluded under this impression it would be un- 
safe to attend the ball, and changed his course 
and went to the house of God. 

A young man who had formerly been an infi- 
del, but was converted at Hillsboro during a 
meeting held by Rev. Hennings of the M. E. 
Church, was there, and during the evening testi- 
fied to God's power to save, of his own deliver- 
ance and happiness. This greatly affected young 
B , and when the offer was made, he immedi- 
ately accepted the invitation, and came forward 
for prayer. He was soon converted and happy, 
and said, "I was invited to go to the dance, and to 
' come without fail,' but I failed to come." 

Thus God can so easily change our plans, and 
give us better ones, and change our hearts from 
sin to grace, if we will ! A young man started 
from home with no intention of seeking religion 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 65 

there, but just the opposite ; yet, in yielding to 
gracious influences, he was suddenly delivered 
from the thraldom of sin. So often " God brings 
the blind by a way they knew not, and leads 
them in paths they have not known." 

J. B was the son of an earnest Christian 

man, a member of our church. The fathei had 
long prayed for the conversion of this son who 
was thought to be in consumption. God had 
"bottled up those tears," and these "prayers 
had come up before Him," and now was the sea 
son for the coming of the answer. This son now 
became interested, and began earnestly to seek 
for pardon, pleading plaintively for mercy. 
Many times he seemed near to the kingdom , then 
the tempter intruded, and he feared to give him- 
self in perfect trust to God. At one of our morn- 
ing meetings he had been praying for an hour, but 
found no comfort, yet still refused to leave unless 
God blessed him. The father was seated near by, 
waiting anxiously to see his prayers fully answer- 
ed in his boy's conversion. Brother Wilson, after 
other exercises, then sang: — 

" 'Twas dark, and I with inward fear 
Stood, like a culprit, weeping near 

The house in which my Saviour dwelt; 
Such pangs my soul had never felt. 

A voice addressed me from within, 
Lift up the latch and enter in." 

As he finished, James was weeping just outside 

5 



66 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

the gate of mercy, and the pastor addressed him : 
" James, you are just outside there in the dark ; 
come in where it is light, God welcomes you." 
Then, like the sinking disciple, he uttered the cry, 
"Lord, save, I perish!" and was saved; and, 
while the Infinite Father welcomed him to his 
bosom, the earthly father clasped him in his arms. 
The young man is now a steward in the church. 
The enemy, always ready to prophesy evil, said 
" they will all backslide ;" but the falsity of the 
prediction has been proven by the consistency and 
steadfastness of many of those who started 
heavenward during this revival. 




OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 67 



PREPARATORY WORK, OR PASTORAL 
EFFORT. 



CHAPTER IX. 

" be not faithless! with the mora 

Scatter abroad thy grain ; 

At noon-tide faint not thou forlorn, 

At evening sow again. 

Blessed are they, vvhate'er betide, 

Who thus all waters sow beside. 

Barton. 

(EVIVALS are fruits reaped from sowings 
of gospel seed " beside all waters ;" or as 
the Saviour puts it, on the "wayside, the 
ston}^ ground, the thorny ground, and the good 
ground," by his ministering servants from time to 
time. This is the method rather than by a divine 
affusion, standing alone and apart from any human 
instrumentality, or any teaching of the Word of 
God, or preaching of the gospel of His grace. 
And it is not, and has not been, a law of spiritual 
action, that immediate and visible effects should 
follow the preaching of the gospel. How far 
this may be the fault of the agent remains an un- 
determined question. 

As in the natural, so we find often in the spiritual, 
the seasons stand far apart of the sowing and the 



68 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

reaping. The process of development reaches 
through a series of widely varying conditions, 
and continues in a course of imperceptible, yet 
positive activity to its completion. 

" Cold, heat, and moist and dry, 
Shall foster and mature the grain 
For garners in the sky." 

It is not assumed that a positive and present 
effect is not attained in the ministration of God's 
Word, but the ultimate end (saving in exception- 
al cases), is reached only in a period beyond, and 
possibly after the lapse of years and decades. 
Then— 

" Sow on in faith! 
Sow the good seed ! Another after thee 
Shall reap. Hast thou not garnered many fruits 
Of others' sowing, whom thou knowest not? 
Cau'st tell how many struggles, sufferings, tears, 
All unrecorded, unnumbered all, 
Hath gone to build up what thou hast of good?" 

Yet doubtless a very distinct object is before 
the mind of the earnest and animated preacher, 
the pious, devoted member, the true spiritual 
guide, and the sermon of the preacher, the prayer 
of the member, and the lesson of the teacher, 
have kept in view the grand end to be attained 
by religious effort, and each one by faith has an- 
ticipated the accomplishment of their purpose, 
near by, or remote from them, in partial or in 
fullest measure. 



OP REV. G. W. WILSON. ()9 

The faithless do not sow. 

Where men use the appliances of religion, em- 
ploy its agencies, and devote their energies to 
further the end they have in view, with a hope 
graduated to the measure of their work, the po- 
tency of the means, or the singleness of their 
purpose, they go forward toward the ultimate 
goal. Since the days of Christ and his apostles 
such religious work has proceeded. From then 
till now, the object has been well-defined, and 
has been one. To teach the truth, and preach 
the gospel, has been avowedly to save the souls 
of men. To educate, and elevate, and humanize, 
apart from something else more ennobling and 
grand, might seem enough to evoke the mightiest 
energies of a human being ; but these flow forth 
as resultants of the process of soul-saving to 
which God's ministers are called. So in view of 
saving men by Jesus Christ and bringing the 
peoples of the world into inward and outward 
harmony with the teachings of the gospel, pas- 
toral and ministerial work has progressed from 
age to age. The gospel's full and completest 
triumph, its final success and accomplished end 
was in a measure adumbrated in the wonderful 
affusion and its miraculous effects following the 
preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost. To 
this end is the gospel preached by every real 
minister of Jesus Christ. For this the workers 



70 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

of every age since apostolic times have been en- 
gaged, and if no generation has seen its complete 
fulfillment, the fact remains, this and all preced- 
ing ones have sought for its attainment. Each 
minister of Christ has gone forward in his 
appointed sphere, recognizing that the law of the 
religious realm still holds good, — " Onemansow- 
eth and another reapeth." So no time is barren 
of workers, no period destitute of fruits. There 
are special seasons of ingathering, but hard years 
of seemingly unrequited labor preceded them, and 
thus with the divinely planned arrangement of 
compensations the work continues. Doubtless our 
special employment and varying exercises in re- 
ligious life are well apportioned and profitable to 
both the laborer and those whose good he seeks. 
We need not give ourselves to sad repinings if 
our ideal of success as pastors and preachers is 
never reached. Jesus did years of sowing, while 
others reap the harvest. 

" 'Tis much only to sow good, 

'Tis much to sow that which another reapeth." 

A great host has gone before us, so the way is 
plainer. A vast multitude has toiled in the fields 
and garnered not, or garnered little, where now 
the ''fields are white," and the "harvest is 
shouted home." Some time before the shower 
the clouds had been gathering for the rainfall. 
Many an one had given a lusty stroke upon the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 71 

flinty rock before the final shock that rent it into 
splinters. A word, it might be now, but it had 
been lines, and chapters, in the years before. 
Wesley did not enlist his mighty army among the 
savage tribes, or Whitefield win the multitudes to 
Christ from among the uninstructed, nor Finney 
and Maffit from 'neath the feet of silent pulpits, 
nor Moody and Sankey from where no gospel 
church was ever planted and the preached word 
was never heard. Yet it is not claimed that ex- 
ceptions do not break the chain of law. Some 
cases, to the glory of God's grace, do come to 
declare the untrammeled sovereignty of Heaven. 
Such was the conversion of the Jailer, and the 
ingathering on the day of Pentecost. Prophetic 
vision saw these erratic lines of action, and por- 
trayed them with inspired touch, saying, " Shall 
a nation be born at once ?' ' and , ' ' before they 
call I will answer, and while they are yet speaking 
I will hear." Some men's lifetime may suffice to 
sow the seed and gather in the harvest, to preach 
the gospel, and see its ripened fruit, and in a 
"cutting short of righteousness" to behold this 
marvel of evangelistic power. 

Such a life was that of Titus Coan among the 
Sandwich Islanders ; John Williams, the Apostle 
of Polynesia ; John Hunt, the first missionary 
among the Fejees ; and Eobert Moffat, the 
Father of South African Missions. But very 



72 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

unusual exercises of God's prerogative do not 
change the general order of his administration, 
and so evangelical work goes on in ordinary, in 
well-defined, and easily distinguishable lines. 
Then let the plodding pastor, the pious teacher, 
and the silent worker in the great fields that God 
opens up for Christian work, in seasons of seem- 
ing barrenness slacken not his pace, or hold his 
hand, nor go with boding melancholly to his task. 
" Both he that soweth, and he that reapeth, shall 
at length rejoice together," and share, doubtless, 
in an equality of reward. 

" There be those who sow beside 

The waters that in silence glide, 
Thinking no echo would declare 

Whose footsteps ever wandered there. 
Yet think not that the seed is dead 

Which in the lonely place is spread: 
It lives ! it lives ! the spring is nigh, 

And soon its life will testify." 

The work of regular ministrations, the effort 
of ordinary occasions, the duties of the pastoral 
office in its routine form are among the most 
exacting, often the least inspiring of any in the 
whole range of religious and philanthropic effort, 
and at times onerous and discouraging to the last 
degree. It has been a valiant band, a noble 
array, a grand division of God's militant host, 
that has proclaimed in dullest ears, and to deadest 
souls, the truth divine, and with trumpet call has 



OF &EV. O. W. WILSON. 73 

never ceased to voice God's message to well, or 
poorly filled sanctuaries in Christian lands, upon 
the Sabbath day. 

How pastors educate ! How from the pulpits 
go forth a ceaseless tide of religious influence 
running on with cumulative force, reaching the 
maximum of height, or stage of overflow, when 
the Evangelist and sister churches all combine for 
a sweeping and glorious work of grace in seasons 
of revival ! Yet it is dull to plod away in routine 
service, if one has no faith in the power of the 
preached word, no sense of a Divine call to the 
holy office, and gathers no inspiration from the 
grandeur of his work and the potency of the 
Gospel. Let the pastor hope for visible results, 
yet labor untiringly without regard to present re 
ward. Let the ministry of the Word be the re- 
flex of a warm, renewed, and loving heart, and 
God's servants will find both hopefulness in wait- 
ing, if Providence so appoints, and happiness in 
doing what a gracious dispensation may enjoin. 
It is not at a single bound the goal is reached, not 
by a stroke the book is penned, or by a note the 
song is sung ; nor is the service of the sanctuary 
complete in any single form of duty, — but ser- 
mon, and song, and prayer, each supply their 
part, each going to fill a place in the larger per- 
fected whole of religious worship. 

In ministerial effort, in pulpit ministration, to 



74 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

fill the measure of God's demand in Gospel influ- 
ence, there must be conformity to ordained 
methods and established usage: so "precept 
must be upon precept, line upon line ; here a little 
and there a little ;" and the "teaching them all 
things that I command thee," must be as well as 
the " lifting the voice like a trumpet," and "cry- 
ing aloud and sparing not." 

Of all the accessories to the Word of God, and 
the influence of the Divine Spirit, none are so im- 
portant, and so much in God's order in saving 
instrumentally as the Preacher of the Gospel. 
He is the most perfect attainable medium of ac- 
cess to the minds and hearts of unregenerate men. 
And his office is to continue, his work to be regu- 
lar, uniform, and abiding to the end of time. 

" I say the Pulpit (in the sober use 

Of its legitimate, peculiar power,) 

Must stand acknowledged while the world shall'stand, — 

The most important and effectual guard, 

Support, and ornament, of Virtue's cause." 

And yet a line does not give the import of the 
pastor's work ; nay, a volume could not suffice to 
give the many-sided views of a subject so fraught 
with interest and deep concerns. We may well 
exclaim : — 

"But who can e'er suffice 
What mortal for this more than angels' task, 
Winning or losing souls, thy life blood's price; 
The Rift were too Divine to ask, 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 75 

Dread Searcher of the hearts! 
Thou who didst seal by thy descending Dove 
Thy Servant's choice, O help us in our parts, 
Else helpless found, to learn and teach thy love." 

Too few realize in its highest sense the honor, 
the importance, responsibility, and the resultant 
glory of faithful efforts in stated preaching, and 
the varied services of pastoral life. Unquestion- 
ably the foundation is laid here for all success in 
revival work. The multiplied rays of religious 
truth that go forth this way, from week to week, 
and year to year, focalize at length upon a given 
point, and in revival seasons fill the sanctuaries of 
the land with life-giving power, and an unwonted 
degree of spiritual light and heat. But as pastors 
may we not come to catch an inspiration that may 
be an indwelling presence in the human heart, 
giving forth a vital force to every sermon 
preached, freighting every prayer and exhorta- 
tion, and energizing every presentation of the 
Word of God ! Why may we not expect and 
claim a spirit-accompanying force in ordinary 
preaching? What assurances the Bible gives us, 
declaring the ' ' Word " to be as a " two-edged 
sword," "like as a fire," and a "hammer that 
breaketh the rock in pieces," that maketh the 
"bones to shake," and "come together,'* and 
that even as one " prophesieth," to his wonder, 
the dead disjointed fragments of humanity Dot 



76 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

only assume the living form, but '* breath comes 
into them, and they live, and stand up upon their 
feet an exceeding great army," the trophies of 
the preached Word. 

"O ye of little faith," may be truly said of 
many of God's ministers, whose very manner, 
and whole expression, betray their distrust of 
God, and the Spirit-accompanying power of His 
Word. Doubt of success in preaching the Gospel, 
that ought to be " in demonstration of the Spirit 
and of power," often paralyses our every effort, 

Still, whether we reach the grandest present 
effects through the Evangelical preaching, or not, 
the fact remains that regular pulpit ministration 
is God's appointed method, and his chosen ser- 
vants, more or less, fulfill his purpose, standing 
as the "candle sticks within the churches." 
And without the pastors preaching, and teaching, 
and his organization of religious forces, Evangel- 
ists, if any, would go forth to narrow fields, em- 
barrassing labor, and partial success. His very 
calling is a resultant of regular preaching and 
pastoral effort. And his enlarged sphere of na- 
tional or international import, and his success in 
gathering thousands and tens of thousands into 
Christian communions is made possible by the 
pastor's plodding worK. Before Evangelists en- 
ter them, the " fields are white to the harvest," 
and his coming is often but the signal for "shout- 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 77 

ing the harvest home." His is the rallying cry 
for the ordering of all the forces, and the proper 
disposition of every agent at command. His 
coming is the signal for united and victorious 
effort. So we have, — Varied agents but a har- 
monious system ; a complex but an efficient plan. 
"A wheel within a wheel" bears the spirit force 
along. There are many workers, but one work. 
There are "diversities of gifts, but one Spirit, 
— differences of administrations, but one Lord." 
So all of every order, every office, and every 
class, join in gospel work, and in millennial times, 
and heavenly places, will sing as one the victor's 
song of triumph, 

"Where the morn shall wake iu gladness, 

And the noon the joy prolong; 

Where the daylight dies in fragrance 

'Mid the burst of holy song; 

Brothers, we shall meet and rest 

'Mid the holy and the blest." 



78 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



REVIVALS AT GILLESPIE AND COR- 
RINGTON CHAPEL. 



GILLESPIE. 
CHAPTER X. 

" Betliesda's pool has lost its power! 
No angel by his glad descent 
Dispenses that diviner dower 

Which with its healing waters went; 
But He whose word surpassed its wave 
Is still omnipotent to save." 

Barton 

T the invitation of the writer, Mr. Wilson 
came to Gillespie, and we commenced a 
series of meetings on the evening of 
March 26, 1883. 

Gillespie population is of peculiar composition. 
Many of its people, possibly one-half, are coal 
miners. They are proverbially migratory in 
character, and on this account, and not being or- 
dinarily church goers, they largely remain stran- 
gers to church people, and usually are but little 
known by pastors of the churches. With the in- 
flux of this class, mostly foreigners, which begun 
about two years previous to the time of our 
meeting, came a large reinforcement to prevailing 
vices that were alarmingly destructive before they 
came, Religion, in its broad sense, dominating 
in the home, controlling in the action of town 



OF REV. C. W. WILSON. 79 

boards, and giving all business the coloring of 
its morals, and the savor of its sanctity, had al- 
ways been sadly wanting, and now seemed nearly 
powerless in the face of reinforced opposition- 
The business of saloonists took on large propor" 
tions, and the utmost possibilities for evil in this 
direction, seemed for a time to be realized. The 
demoralizing influence of intemperance and kind- 
red vices had made great progress, and threatened 
the whole moral fabric of society. So true is it 
that ''Evil communications corrupt good man- 
ners ;" and as Pope poetizes it : 

" Vice is a monster of so frightful mien. 
As to be hated, needs but to be seen; 
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 
We first endure, then pity, then embrace." 

Yet the faithful, earnest preaching for years, of 
various pastors, and the devoted and continuous 
efforts for the security of the young through the 
Sabbath School, had in some sense held in check 
the evil, and conserved the good,for both old and 
young. Still there needed to be a fierce combat 
with prevailing sins at the very outset of any re- 
vival work. And any religious leader must feel 
besides that there were very few prominent, 
active workers to aid him in his efforts. The 
majority of church members were women, and a 
number of these aged and feeble. Doubtless 
among those who were now infirm, and who could 



80 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

no longer stand in the van of religious conflicts, a 
prayerful longing for God's work to prosper, and 
for a saving influence to come to their sons and 
daughters and neighbors, had for years filled a 
large place in their hearts, and in this revival they 
measurably found the answer of their prayers. 
Ag is often the case, too, we found, that for ac- 
tive efforts, and public work, we were largely de- 
pendent upon the women through the progress of 
the meeting. Still some came to the front, and 
gave aid and encouragement to God's servants in 
this religious struggle. Mr. Wilson soon found 
that his chief work lay in the direction of expos- 
ing vice, tearing the mask off of professional 
piety, and laying the axe mercilessly at the roots 
of common evils. Some were exasperated, wick- 
ed men writhed under the excoriations of the fear- 
less Evangelist, and more or less opposition was 
aroused on the part of easy-going religionists aud 
open opponents. 

The spirit of those, stung by the plain dealing 
of God' servant may be best shown in the light 
of an incident of the revival. An anonymous 
letter came to Mr. W. through the Post Office, 
running on this wise : 

" Mr. Wilson : — You are respectfully request- 
ed to tame your lying tougue, or if you cannot do 
that, to leave town inside of thirty-six hours. If 
not, you'll bear the result." 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 8l 

This was read from the pulpit to the congrega- 
tion, and commented on freely, and was help- 
ful rather than detrimental to the success of the 
meeting. 

"Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee; 
the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain ;" thus 
God's servants found in this contest with the 
adversaries of religion. 

So, regardless of threats, unheeding of fears, 
the Evangelist moved on, and the work progressed. 
The revival influence was manifest, in its begin- 
ning, among a class of girls of some 14 years of 
age. These were the first making a profession of 
religion, and during the following weeks they 
were efficient helpers, singing, visiting, and talk- 
ing to their companions, and laboring with unre- 
mitting zeal. Mr. W. did but little preaching. 
During the day we visited, and talked with all 
classes, at their homes, in their shops, and on the 
streets, and some of the expressions or incidents 
of the day usually furnished the subject for the 
exhortation at night. There were conversions 
from nearly the beginning of the meetings until 
the close, which occurred on Monday evening, 
April 16th. Nine was the highest number of 
conversions any day. 

During the three weeks, fifty-eight persons 
gave their names as having experienced religion, 
or been reclaimed. 




82 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Of the value of the meeting as a religious in- 
fluence, inviting, and holding the attention of the 
people in this direction for such a length of time, 
we may not make even an approximate estimate. 
Of its importance as a force in individual life, and 
in giving shape to specific character, we may not 
know ; yet of its opportunities for the irreligious 
to start in a godly life, and for God's people to 
do valiant work for the Master, it was of vast 
and immeasurable value. 

" This is that moment; who can tell 
Whether it lead to Heaven or Hell? 
This is that moment ; as we choose, 
The immortal soul we save or lose." 

The Jubilee Services on Sabbath, April 15, 
beginning with Praise Meeting at 9 : 30 a.m., were 
largely attended, deeply interesting, and, doubt- 
less, of great profit to many who were permitted 
to attend. Certainly God's power was wonder- 
fully manifest, and memories of a delightful 
season of revival influence will linger long with 
many, and it may be hoped that from the glory 
world, at last, some will look back to those weeks 
of special effort as the turning point in their 
religious career, and thank God for the saving 
grace that came to them on that occasion. May 
the sacred influence of that revival season long go 
forth as blessed perfume in religious life. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 83 

CORRINGTON CHAPEL. 



" There are moments of life that we never forget, 
Which brighten and brighten as time steals away; 
They give a new charm to the happiest lot, 
And shine on the gloom of the loneliest day." 

Corrington Chapel is a country church six 
miles north of Bunker Hill, belonging to Gilles- 
pie Circuit. The chapel is a new, pleasant, com- 
modious building, erected during the summer and 
fall of 1882. A protracted meeting, conducted 
by the writer, aided by the Rev. James McPher- 
ron, of Jacksonville, had been held about the 1st 
of January, 1883, resulting in 25 professions of 
religion and 17 accessions to the Church. After 
the Gillespie meeting we invited Mr. Wilson to 
aid us in another effort at the chapel. He was to 
have been with us on the evening of April 23d, 
but failed to get the communication sent him. 
We had a meeting Monday, and also Tuesday 
night, without hearing from him. 

Tuesday night, when the invitation was given, 
six persons arose for prayer. So a revival spirit 
prevailed from the very beginning. It was the 
corn-planting season, yet many came, and some 
twice a day for weeks. 

The religion here is of the steady-going, even- 
running, reliable kind, capable of some ebulli- 
tions to be sure, yet always flowing in a forceful 7 



84 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

vigorous tide, and though not noisy and demon- 
strative, yet active and efficient. 

On Wednesday evening, much to the satisfac- 
tion of all, Mr. Wilson came. By Sabbath the 
meeting had gotton well under way. Mr. Wilson 
had gotten to understand the people, and the peo- 
ple him, and a general good feeling prevailed, 
while a number had by this time professed reli- 
gion. Each of us had appointments at distant 
churches for Sabbath the 29th. Bro. Wilson 
drove in a buggy, by changing horses, 54 miles, 
and preached twice during the day ; the writer, 
about half that distance, also preaching twice, and 
both were back at Corrington for the service at 
night. 

Monday night the 30th, the largest number 
came forward to the altar for prayer of any night 
during the meetings. Some said there were 
19, some said 20 ; at any rate, every one of the 
number made a profession of religion before the 
service of the evening closed. The revival swept 
on in great power, day after day, and persons 
came for ten miles in various directions from the 
surrounding country and towns. The Presbyterians 
of Plainview, with their pastor, Mr. Patchen, 
attended most of the time and worked efficiently. 

Sabbath, May the 6th, was a memorable day 
for the chapel It was the time of our Jubilee 
over the conversion of one hundred souls. The 



OF KEY. G. W. WILSON. <S. r ) 

Praise Service was at 9 o'clock a.m. One pro- 
fessed religion during that hour, and the revival 
influence was so strong that it looked for a time 
as if it would be impossible to proceed with the 
preaching service at the hour for which it was 
announced. The Sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per was administered to 150 or more deeply inter- 
ested communicants at 3 o'clock p.m. During 
this service the tide of divine grace and power 
swept over the whole assembly. One aged sister, 
whose face beamed with more than earthly joy, 
said, "This is as near heaven as I ever expect to 
get in this world ;" while all felt "it is good to be 
here." The people of Bunker Hill had been 
pressing Mr. W. to come and conduct revival 
services in that place, and on Thursday evening, 
May 10, while still much interest was manifest, 
we closed the protracted effort. 

At times during the progress of the meeting it 
seemed as if every one in attendance would yield to 
the gracious influence, and very few contined to per- 
sist in open opposition. When the meeting closed, 
of the families of the neighborhood, there could be 
counted from 17 to 20 in which there was not an 
irreligious person left. The community was the 
most nearly entirely religious of any we ever 
knew. There were grand workers of both old and 
young in the Churchy and many were added to it 
who give promise to be efficient and earnest 



86 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

laborers for years to come. Young ladies vied 
with each other in their efforts to win the irreli- 
gious, and did much to forward the work by their 
faithful personal endeavors. Persistent, steady 
and consistent service has always been the order 
at Corrington Chapel, and those now maturing in 
Christian life will doubtless retain the best char- 
acteristics of the Church of the olden time. 

The influences for good set in motion during 
this revival season are certainly to continue as a 
living force for many years to come. 

Let us each strive to keep alive the good, fos- 
ter the graces of religion, and do some worthy 
work for the cause of God. 

" By thy trustful calm endeavor, 
Guiding, cheering like the sun, 
Earth-bound hearts thou shalt deliver • 
O! for their sakes press thou on!" 




\\ . WILSON. 87 



CO-OPERATION OF CHURCHES. 



CHAPTER XL 

" Thus to the Father prayed the Son, 
' One may they be as we are one, 

That I in them and thou in me 
They one with us may ever be.' 
Children of God! combine your bands. 
Brethren in Christ! join hearts and hands, 
And pray (for so the Father willed) 
That the Son's prayer be fulfilled." 

OW vain the efforts of discordant churches ! 
In this lies the secret of many a failure in at- 
tempted revival work. The pastor may be a 
skillful leader, a competent and discerning guide, 
and a faithful and earnest worker, and yet find 
all the purposes of his heart, all the devisings of 
his mind, and the most consuming effort of his 
life, rendered wholly or partially abortive by the 
inharmonious action of churches, and the lack of 
co-operation, either designed or otherwise, of 
those through whom he must reach the outer 
world. The agencies for good are not so directly 
operative and efficient as to touch humanity in 
all its springs of action, and produce the best at 



88 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

tainable results apart from the influence of re- 
ligious people. The few may give faltering ad- 
herence, or even hearty and enthusiastic follow- 
ing, only to be paralyzed in their influence, or 
defeated of their ends, in the positive opposition 
or simulated friendship, of a larger number 
whose very breathings are blighting to every bud 
of hope in religious work. The successful worker 
never stands alone, or seeming to stand alone, 
his attitude is such that his position is only to be 
denned, and then at once he gathers around him, 
and in closest concert of action with him, the re- 
ligious forces at command. It is true, where 
there are no churches, where God has no people 
called and named for him, and religion has no 
representatives in professed diseipleship, then 
God's work may proceed by other methods. 
But the fact remains that the ordained plan is to 
reach the unconverted through the agency of 
those who are confessedly religious , and the influ- 
ence of religious life is one of the great factors 
in the enlightenment and reclamation of the dark 
and sinning world. 

The form in which the Saviour puts the case in 
showing church responsibility is clear and plain, 
and in perfect harmony, too, with prophetic de- 
liverances touching the depositories of religious 
forcefulness and power. 

Isaiah calls the Church to "put on her strength," 



OF KEV. G. W. WILSON 81) 

to "arise and shine," and continues to portray 
the power and influence of her holy life, by say- 
ing, — " The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and 
kings to the brightness of thy rising;" while 
Jesus declares, "ye are the light of the world, a 
city on a hill." 

" Lord, thy church is still thy dwelling, 
Still is precious in thy sight, 
Judah's temple far excelling, 
Beaming with the Gospel's light." 

It is plain a sad and grave defect may mar, 
and measurably obscure the light of the Church's 
life, when from any means or on any account, or 
from any cause planned for, or accidental, the 
fount is not fed and fostered. Inharmony may 
dim, and strife and unchurchly feeling may ex- 
tinguish the light entire. Too often the full 
force of religious life, and the full glow of 
churchly light, are hampered and circumscribed 
by the want of cordial sympathy between the 
minister and his people. 

There is scarcely a pastor in all the land, of any 
considerable experience, but has had cause for 
complaint, just ground for dissatisfaction, at the 
want of cordiality on the part of those he serves, 
or the positive withdrawal of moral support, in 
seasons of his greatest need, — at times when he 
had planned for enlarged usefulness and greater 
success in religious work. 



90 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORE 

To be thwarted in one's designs in endeavoring 
to attain a measureable degree of growth of 
church life is an occurrence so common in the 
duties and work of the pastor as to come to be 
counted on, in any reckoning made for doing 
good, as one of the likely contingencies. 

Have not churches more or less often whims ? 
Have not aggregated bodies often the spirit of 
the members that compose it? May not a people 
take a notion, may not a multitude agree without 
consultation? May not a strange purpose seize 
on thoughtless, or more thoughtful persons, mani- 
festing itself in a witholding of moral support 
from the Pastor? Surely the want of co-opera- 
tion, the lack of sympathy, is not from a spirit 
of diabolic action, not from a well formulated 
plan for the Pastor's and the Church's defeat, 
yet notwithstanding the lack of calculation, such 
course may be freighted with the direst results, 
and encumbered with a weight of responsibility 
sufficient to make a multitude shudder to assume 
it. Who can be most ready? Who will gladly 
go forward? Who will give the most cordial 
support to the Pastor? Who will be most steady 
in co-operation? These and kindred questions 
may readily arise in the minds of God's minister- 
ing servants, but do they find place in the thought 
of Church people, and if so, do they call forth the 
glad response of, I will, and the hearty Aye, and 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 91 

Amen? Are there not wanting in every Christian 
Communion (in times when the heart-burdened, 
or overtaxed Pastor finds his "hands hanging 
down" with uncontrollable weariness), Aarons 
and Hurs, to "stay up those hands " to a vic- 
torious hour. There is often a disposition to wait, 
and question, and hesitate, and give only a partial 
support, at the point where one needs hearty 
sympathy and earnest co-operation. There 
must if greatest good is done, in an y gospel 
sense, be obliviousness in regard to many human 
weaknesses, and sinless frailties, and indiffer- 
ence to such minor things as forms and methods, 
and heartiness of accord in every sense, and 
everywhere, and at every point, where the true 
spirit is maintained, and one grand end is sought. 
There ought to be that generousness of soul, 
of Christ-like character, which, however much 
the outward form may vary, while the purpose 
and object sought are one, would place each 
worker in completest fellowship with every co- 
laborer in the wide field of religious effort. 

"There is no man," said Jesus, "which 
shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly 
speak evil of me, for he that is not against 
us is on our part." 

" In many things the Church may disagree, 
But all should have concern for Charity : 
All must be false that thwart this one great end : 
And all of God that bless mankind and mend." 



92 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WOKK 

'Tis true the Pastor stands so related to his 
flock that often he sees and knows too much. 
Many minor and unimportant things, unknown to 
strangers, force themselves in such attitudes 
before him, that they get attention wholly unde- 
served, and often prove seriously detrimental to 
his work. He may know often what he would 
be glad if it were possible not to know, and what 
if he had never known would have left him free 
and untrammelled in his action, that would have 
been more happily and wisely taken. By the 
prominence of minor things Pastors may be 
influenced to a party course, and arouse factional 
opposition, where obliviousness might have foster- 
ed harmony. He may give acquiescence where 
plans are shrewdly laid, or opposition where it 
may by covert course be sought, in either case 
finding himself in party hands for party use. 
The Evangelist steers clear of such entanglements, 
as much or more, from non-acquaintance as 
from studied effort. 

In many fields God's work is marred, and 
Church progress hindered, and every religious 
interest doomed to suffer, not so much for lack of 
ability of Pastor or people, as for lack of harmony 
between them. The painstaking, the prayerful, 
the thoughtful, and best intentioned preachers, 
have often found cause for sorrow, and ground 
for just complaint, at the lack of unanimity in 



OF REV. G. \V. WILSON. 93 

the action of religious people. It does come to 
pass true enough, and so often too, as almost to 
lead to the conclusion that the thing was so by 
ordination, that the stranger can get nearer 
your religious life than the one who has always 
known you ; — and he who had no claims of 
friendship or intimate relationship, could exert a 
more commanding influence than the one who 
by churchly allotment was the true spiritual 
guide and counsellor. But then ma^y we not 
find a rational solution of this problem ? Mayhap 
you who know your brother well, and are always 
with him, seeing him every day and being as one 
of the same religious family, fail to recognize a 
plain religious duty, and feel no lack of oppor- 
tunity ; while the stranger seeing he is only a 
passer-by, realizes in its full import, the " now " 
and " to-day," of his time to act, and seizes on 
the auspicious moment to make direct and per- 
sonal appeals. 

Is a stranger more interested than my Pastor ? 
This question is soon suggested, and many an 
illogical and false conclusion has been reached, 
and many unjust comparisons instituted, as the 
subject has been cursorily looked upon, and 
hastily decided. Vast as may be the bounds 
of evangelistic concern, it is not in the very 
nature of things so individually intense, 
so wholly personal, as are the love and interest 



94 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

of the Pastor. But the multiform phases of duty 
devolviug upon the latter, crowding the mind for 
recognition and notice, may possibly compel 
neglects in specific lines of work. Too many 
claims, too large demands, too exacting require- 
ments, are often made ; and so in some direction 
there will of necessity be partial failure in meet- 
ing the large expectations of either individuals or 
churches. But the Evangelist comes in for 
specific forms of work, touches effectively certain 
lines of duty, and in every sense is a specialist in 
religious effort. This form of action is perfectly 
adapted to individual and personal attention, and 
makes itself felt in the aggregate by its direct 
and forceful effect on the unit. It is not strange 
for Kevivalists to be more ready and better 
equipped for their particular department of effort 
than those whose service is more diversified and 
general in its forms. This very fact puts them 
at advantage over ordinary workers. The people 
question the ability of the pastor for this particu- 
lar line of work, but yield assent at once to one 
whose reputation declares him a master in this 
department. 

It is an indisputable fact that as toco-operation, 
Evangelists have largely the advantage of the 
ordinary preacher. If it be not a blameworthy 
thing, but rather a praiseworthy thing, it is at 
the least an unquestionable fact. It is not in- 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 95 

variably true, but ordinarily so, that the stranger 
exerts a unifying influence that would be un- 
attainable to the man familiar with all the discor- 
dant elements and factional forces of congre- 
gations and churches. Sometimes the novelty, 
sometimes the peculiar methods, often the pure 
devotion of the Evanglist to his work enlists the 
interest and wins the support of religious people. 
Then the invited worker can make exacting de- 
mands that must meet with ready compliance, or 
he declines to work at all. He receives assurance 
of sympathy, of a hearty endorsement by pastors, 
official boards, and even of the membership of 
churches, before he begins a single service. So 
he comes to an expectant people, a ready people, 
a waiting people, a harmonious, pledged, and 
sacrificing church or churches ; and from the 
moment of assuming the control of the forces at 
his disposal, he goes unembarrassed at his task, 
with no thought that there will be reluctant 
acquiesence, doubtful compliance with his com- 
mands, or any coldness toward him in the pro- 
gress of his work. From this advertised state of 
things there comes a moral force of incalculable 
weight. Every utterance, every movement, every 
varying phase of service, song, or prayer, or 
exhortation is vitalized by its agency. 

The ministers of churches, often of every 
name, accord pre-eminence to the Evangelist, in 



96 EVANGELISM, AND REVtVAL WORK 

his position of proffered captaincy of God's hosts, 
while hundreds of earnest, pious men and women 
yield ready service in whatsoever department it 
may be needed. Each added* worker gives 
fresh momentum to the volume, and a gathering 
tide sets heavenward at times, and under certain 
religious conditions and surroundings, becomes 
almost resistless in its force. These harmonized, 
gathered forces, marshalled in a common line, 
illustrate with matchless power the oneness of 
religious life, the identity of experience, the truth 
of Christian fellowship, and the supremacy in the 
Church, of Love to God, and " good will to 
men." 

" One sole baptismal sign, 

One Lord below, above, 

One faith, one hope Divine, 

One only watchword love ; 

From different temples though it rise, 

One song ascendeth to the. skies." 

And may not one of the grandest ends possible 
for any worker to attain be that of bringing 
together in cordial sympathy, hearty effort, daily 
devotions, and ready sacrifices, the followers of 
Jesus, of every name and order, and in this way, 
in unaffected manner demonstrate the spirit of a 
genuine Christian Brotherhood? 



OF REV. O. W. WILSON. 97 



BUNKER HILL REVIVAL, AND COM- 
PARATIVE VALUES. 




Bunker Hill Revival. 
CHAPTER XII. 

<^51ft-ffcR. WILSON assumed the charge of the 
meetings at this place on Friday evening, 
May 11, 1883. On the first evening a 
large congregation was present, and a marked in- 
terest was manifest. Seven persons presented 
themselves as seekers, and five of these made a 
profession of religion that evening. From day 
to day the work progressed with increasing mo- 
mentum, until a general awakening prevailed in 
the community ; and the churches, especially the 
Congregational and Methodist, were roused to 
unusual activity in efforts to win the irreligious 
and influence men to a better life. 

The Bunker Hill Gazette at the conclusion of 
the meetings wrote as follows: — "The great 
feature of the revival effort in this place was an 
all-day Jubilee service held last Sabbath. The 
day meetings, commencing at 9.30 a.m., and 
closing at 5 p.m., were held in the Congregational 
7 



98 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Church grounds, and evening service in the 
church. Nearly one thousand people attended 
the morning meeting, and one half as many more 
that in the afternoon. Rev. Wilson delivered an 
excellent discourse at the former service. In the 
afternoon brief addresses were made by the 
various resident clergymen, and the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper was administered in accord- 
ance with the usage of the M. E. Church. In 
the evening a praise meeting was held, the con- 
gregation being one of the largest ever assembled 
within church walls at this place. Eev. Wilson 
followed in an address to young converts, impress- 
ing upon them the necessity for identifying them- 
selves with some church organization. On Mon- 
day afternoon a prayer and praise meeting was 
held in the Methodist Church. In the even- 
ing the final meeting was held. This revival 
effort, which has continued for three and a-half 
weeks, is one of the most successful ever held in 
this place, and has been fruitful of great good. 
The number of professions is reported to be 132, 
but of these quite a number have not been con- 
versions, strictly speaking, but a re-awakening of 
those who had become cold and careless. A 
most excellent result of the meeting has been the 
unification of Christian people, the healing of dis- 
sention, and the arousing of a warm spirituality 
on the part of the churches. To this time up- 



OF REV. (i. W. WILSON. 99 

wards of thirty persons have connected themselves 
with the Methodist Church, and others will follow 
at an early day. The other churches will also 
receive considerable accessions." 



Comparative Values. 



" His law is action : gates of power 
Stand open in his view : 
A restless soul, a holy zeal 
Shall give him entrance through." 

If he gives attention at all to the subject, the 
Evangelist may have occasion to think of his work, 
from the haste in which it is done, as likely to 
have a correspondingly early completion. The 
strain on brain and nerve, the tension great and 
continous, places one under the law governing in 
such exceptional cases, — and not under the law 
and penalty, operating in the case of the ordinary 
thinker and worker. 

The man living in constant revival may find 
partial exemption from the penalty affixed to in- 
temperate labor, through the stimulus that comes 
by the Divine Spiritual Agency, manifest in these 



100 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

gracious outpourings, and in a measure counter- 
acting the destructive influence resulting from 
mental and physical exhaustion. But the enthusi- 
asm and uninterrupted toil of the Evangelist may 
give clear intimation of the fact to him that in 
his course of immoderate effort he is certainly 
hastening the end of life, or the end of labor. 
Now with this condition, and with this prospect 
in view, are there any compensations to which 
this class of workers may turn their thought? 
With such facts before us as we have mentioned 
some will doubtless argue that Evangelistic work 
is deficient in a sense that goes to make one's 
life and service in the religious domain a success. 
That is, the life and work of the Evangelist are 
of brief duration compared with either that of 
the teacher or pastor. So we are apt to con- 
clude that there is some element wanting to make 
the life a well-rounded and perfect one. But the- 
value of the Revivalist's service is not to be meas- 
ured by the ordinary standard, but by one of differ- 
ent kind, yet we shall assume one equally true. 
Let us examine this subject in a mathematical 
way, and see what result shall be reached by the 
method of figures. Ordinarily the Evangelist 
preaches every day in the year ; but making prop- 
er allowance for time lost in changing from 
place to place in his work, and what may be 
absolutely essential for rest, we may thus reduce 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 101 

the time he ministers to the great congregations 
to three hundred days in the year. 

Here let us make note of the fact that his 
audiences are nearly always of the maximum kind. 
Then suppose that his congregations at his even- 
ing meetings, for these are the chief religion- 
gatherings in revival seasons, shall average three 
hundred persons. We shall then find that three 
hundred multiplied by three hundred will give us 
ninety thousand as the number he addresses on 
the subject of religion in these nightly meetings 
during the year. And, besides this, he usually 
meets the most interested church members, and 
many awakened enquirers, in a service at some 
suitable hour during the day. 

Now let us examine per contra the work of the 
regular pastor. We shall assume that he min- 
isters to, say two hundred persons for fifty 
Sabbaths and forty secular days in the year. 
This would give us an aggregate of eighteen thou- 
sand persons to whom he preaches the gospel 
during the year. If it be said that the calcula- 
tion is at fault from the fact that the pastor has 
two services per day, we answer that the after- 
noon meeting where the Evangelist labors is of 
such import as to equal either one or the other of 
these. We may then fix approximately the 
average term of efficient pastorial service at 
twenty years. Then we find the Evangelist's one 



102 EVANGELISM, AXD REVIVAL WORK 

year equivalent to fivt of the pastor, if we reckon 
his efforts in preaching to be as efficient as those 
of the man in the regular work, — one preaching 
to ninety thousand in one year, the other the same 
number in five years. In summing up the total 
results we find that four years of Evangelistic 
work is equal to a life-timt of service of the 
regular pastor. In other words, the Evangelist 
makes up in speed for what is wanting in time. 
The methods of the two stand somewhat in rela- 
tion to each other as the traveling by rail of to-day 
to the stage coach journey of a great while ago ; 
or as the process of communication by telegraph 
to the more tardy mode of letter conveyance by 
mail. Then we should make account of the fact 
that the Evangelist rarely works when the material 
at hand is other than at the white heat of revival 
times, and when almost every possible combina- 
tion is secured to give point and efficiency to his 
every appeal. There is no purpose in this com- 
parative view to magnify the work of the 
Evangelist, and by contrast minify that of the 
pastor, — since in a preceding chapter we have 
stated our thought on the value of " Pastoral 
Effort;" — but our desire has been to set in its 
true light the exhaustive labor of this class of 
religious workers, and show that there are abun- 
dant compensations for it. 

It has seemed apparent to us that in special 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 103 

cases a life-time work might be wrought out at 
lightning speed, and that one might as effectually 
meet the demands of the times, and as certainly 
till up the measure of usefulness by the rapid as 
by the slow and plodding process. Still we shall 
find that brilliancy will be offset by brevity, and 
large and speedy results attained at the cost of an 
early enforced suspension from active ministerial 
effort, or a removal in mid-career to Heaven's 
reward and rest. Yet surely one may have no 
cause to mourn whose " zeal " has in a measure 
" eaten him up," and whose race was run by 
rapid strides ;— while others, as God may will, 
shall journey by tedious round to reach the goal, 
and shall find themselves happy in their lot, and 
pleased, and satisfied with a long career of steady 
work. One's " Sun may go down at noon," as 
did a Summerfields by God's appointment, and 
yet in far off worlds shine more bright, and 
long, for an early, earthly setting. The compen- 
sations in God's administration are among the 
mysteries of that goverement that has control of 
all the minutest forms of life, and deals in com- 
pletest justice, with each specific and separate sub- 
ject of it. 



104 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



PREACHING AND EXHORTATION. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



"Persuasion, friend, comes not by toil or art, A 

Hard study never made the matter clearer; 

'Tis the live fountain in the preacher's heart 

Sends forth the streams that melt the ravished hearer." 

'HE gifts of God to men are of varied kinds, 
both as to intellectual and moral capabili- 
ties, and are as fitting as their difference 
of form and face. 

Thus this idea is set forth by apostolic teaching : 

4. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same Spirit. 

5. And there are differences of administrations, 
but the same Lord. 

<o. And there are diversities of operations, but 
it is the same God which worketh all in all. 

7. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given 
to every man to profit withal. 

8. For to one is given by the Spirit the word 
of wisdom ; to another, the word of knowledge 
by the same Spirit ; 

U. To another, faith by the same Spirit; to 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 105 

another, the gifts of healing by the same Spirit ; 

10. To another, the working of miracles ; to 
another, prophecy ; to another, discerning of 
spirits ; to another divers kinds of tongues ; to 
another, the interpretation of tongues : 

11. But all these worketh that one and the 
self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally 
as he will. 

Great preachers have characteristics marking 
their individuality, often preserving by strong 
lines of separation their religious, moral, or intel- 
lectual idiosyncrasies. They are unlike in manner 
and matter and temper. Massillon found no re- 
semblance in Eoland Hill, nor Whitefieldin Wes- 
ley, nor Jonathan Edward in Adam Clark, nor 
Bascom in Spurgeon, and so on through all the 
long list of pulpit prodigies. 

So, too, of those less distinguished, making the 
vast body of ministerial and evangelistic workers 
of the ages. We shall find one a tearful pleader, 
another a fearless denouncer, this one will breathe 
his utterances soft as the tones of an iEolean harp, 
that one's message will come in the clarion notes 
of the trumpet's call. Here one will speak in the 
language of Scripture, then another in the gem- 
like forms of poesy. One will give emphasis in 
incident, another in experience, while some one 
may by a peculiarly happy faculty or gift voice 
his ministration in a combination of every style. 



106 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Some of God's servants will keep his hearers 
in solemn frame, others in mirthful, or saddened 
mood, b}r turns ; one will seek excitement, another 
strive to quell it, yet each achieve a success, and 
gain the object sought, even if it be by means 
widely divergent in their forms. Thus the gath- 
ered throngs of hearers, the multitude of anxious 
listeners receive God's message from every pos- 
sible variety of agents, in every conceivable phase 
of expression, and in all the modulations of tone 
and temper known to human beings. 

To move the hearer by legitimate means, how- 
ever varied the means may be, is at once the plain 
prerogative, and must be the studied purpose of 
every ministerial worker. So he may "win 
souls" is the absorbing thought and consuming 
desire of the "ambassador of Christ." It may 
matter to him but little whether it be by the agen- 
cy of sermon or song, or prayer or exhortation, 
or sigh or tear, so God's work is done and souls 
are saved. He is wise who levies on all appli- 
ances, wields all forces, tries every method, uses 
every hell), and neither overlooks nor neglects the 
least of all of God's ordained agencies for good. 
An unskillful workman may overdo in the ser- 
monic method, and wear out an audience and re- 
ligious interest by persistence in presenting the 
dull platitudes of formal discourse, or being dis- 
posed to another form of approach may mar the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSOIV. 107 

effectiveness of his ministry by a continuance in 
a studied and arranged -for course of song service 
and exhortation. Great gifts in any one direction 
may lead to overwork in the particular vein for 
which one's special capacity may seem to fit him. 
The most happy method is a golden mean, neither 
too much preaching nor too much of exhortation ; 
not an overdoing in the department of ministerial 
or lay exercise, but a judicious blending of them 
all. Yet some workers knowing of only one 
source of power as their chief dependence to 
arouse men to action, to awaken men to a sense of 
their sinfulness and danger, and to get revival in- 
fluence started, and moving in successful and 
dominating power, make this almost their sole 
resort in their ministry of years. And it may be 
better to overdo in efforts at set preaching, or 
formal exhortation, or routine prayer or praise 
service, than adopt a method with which the 
Evangelist may not be in harmony, catching 
at something he knows not what, thereby only 
calling attention to his ignorance or awkwardness, 
or both. 

Certainly Harrison would fail if he depended 
upon preaching, Moody if on singing, Philip 
Phillips if on anything but song, and Summerfield 
and John Ne wland Maffitt if they had rested on any- 
thing but their seemingly inspired sermons. In 
revival services a plan more or less of one general 



108 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

forin must be adopted. Some parts of the ser- 
vice cannot be omitted, however much the parts 
may be transposed, or forced by exigencies into 
disproportionate form, or crowded into abnormal 
places in that particular hour of devotion. Cir- 
cumstances, people, churches, and conditions 
may widely vary, and these must impart some 
special phase to each particular revival service 
and season. Adaptation must be studied and 
providential indications must always measurably 
influence one in doing the best religious work. 
Preachers cannot always conduct every service 
even to their own liking ; sometimes before they 
are aware of it, it may, in a measure, be beyond 
their control by providential interference, and no 
arranged-for programme could be carried out. It 
would be a very grave blunder when such a posi- 
tive Divine interference occurred to still endeavor 
to keep the services to the line of human methods, 
and measurably ignore God's plainly indicated 
course of action. 

That is to say, suppose a preacher might find, 
on beginning a service at the appointed time, such 
a state of religious feeling, as that an attempt at 
regular preaching would tend to suppress rather 
than highten the fervor ; it would surely seem to 
be great unwisdom, if not vain presumption, to 
persist in the delivery of a set discourse, when evi- 
dent that persons were in just the frame at the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 109 

outset one would wish them when the sermon 
ended. The greatest measure of success should 
be the aim, the fullest scope to Providential lead- 
ings, even if for the time the preacher must be 
content with a position of seemingly lessened 
importance in his work. 

Any good man, any great captain, any worthy 
Evangelist should welcome the sway of spiritual 
power that might start the "Eldads and Medads 
to prophecying in the camp," even though for the 
time his reputation for great preaching, or suc- 
cessful generalship, must be measurably eclipsed 
thereby. 

It is well for men, even the greatest and the 
best, to sink into insignificance at times, and rev- 
erently bow as novices in the realm of religious 
forces, in the presence of that all-quickening, all 
pervading, all-conquering spirit, that energizes 
alike the greater and the weaker human agencies. 

"The Spirit of God 
From heaven descending, dwells in domes of clay: 
In modes far passing human thought, he guides, 

Impels, instructs." 

His must be a closely attentive ear, and a nice 
discriminating sense of hearing, to enable him 
amid the din and above the roar of earth's com- 
mingling voices, to catch the tones of zephyr soft- 
ness, of God's inward breathing Spirit, delivering 
to His servant the message of love to man. Yet 



110 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

that message comes, and comes in the freshness 
of a new creation, and enters as a sweet mystery 
into that listening ear, and to that receptive heart, 
to come forth voiced by God's servant, at the su- 
preme moment for its appointed work. But is 
not that claiming too much of an inspiration? 
Surely not if the messengeris "called," "anoint- 
ed," "sent." God said to Moses : "Thou shalt 
speak and say, and, Speak all that I shall com- 
mand thee ;" Ex. vii., 2. 

Ehud said: "I have a message from God to 
thee," as he came to the King of Eglon in his 
summer-house ; Judge ii., 20. And so of every 
servant of God sent to slay a sin. 

When Ahimaaz would let David know of Abso- 
lom's death, Joab said, "Wherefore wilt thou 
run my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings 
ready," and who can go unless God shall bid 
him, and prepare the tidings for him? See 8 ami. 
xviii., 22. 

"The words of the wise are as goads, and as 
nails fastened by the Masters of Assemblies, which 
Are' given from One Shepherd ;" Eel. xii., 11. 

Said the Saviour, "It is not ye that speak, but 
the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you :" 
Matt, x.,20. 

And in Pentecostal times, "The Apostles were 
filled with the Holy Ghost, and spake with other 



OF REV. C. W. WILSON. Ill 

tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 
ii., 4. 

And in all times the true minister can say, 
"Now we have received not the spirit of the 
world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we 
might know the things that are freely given us of 
God. Which things also we speak not in words 
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the 
Holy Ghost teacheth ;" /. Cor. ii., 13. And 
with a sense of constant dependence on God, in 
daily communion with Him, and with unfaltering 
faith in his promise, "Lo I am with you," His 
servants may speak with boldness, and find in 
their public ministrations that the Word is in 
"demonstration of the spirit and of power." Yet 
in the details as to manner and forms, a large 
margin is left for the exercise of taste, choice, 
judgment, aud the influence of surroundings at 
the time of delivery. 

A man may feel moved to preach it, or pray it, 
or sing it, or exhort it, and in any or all these 
methods, or in ways unnamed God's messages of 
life may be conveyed to perishing men . In any 
manner it may work God's will by its positive 
efficiency to« justify his mercy and his grace to 
men. It need not be elaborate, it may be, yet 
he shall know of what it ought to be, who has 
enquired of the Lord. God's message comes and 
goes through the warm channel of the heart and 



112 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

life, and by the pathway of vocal sound, and with 
language and action in harmony with the subject 
and object it wings its way to do God's bidding. 

"And well without book or stole, 
(God's words were printed on his soul!) 

Into the waiting ear 
He breathed, as 'twere an angel's strain, 

The things that unto life pertain 
And deaths dark shadows clear." 

How simple at times the form ! How strange 
the results that follow ! How surprising the 
force of gospel truth ! 

A minister said, after reading in a morning 
meeting the Lord's prayer, " Now how many of 
you can say, ' Our Father,' let us see?" One 
young lady said, " I cannot," and conviction 
came, and prayer begun, and revival work from 
that non-pretentious service, that morning hour. 
Who may not see that " Our Father," in that 
particular way, under the special influences of 
that hour was more efficient than the preaching of 
any elaborate sermon could have been. What a 
vast treasury is God's word ! 

" It always yields 

To holy hands and humble hearts, 

More swords and shields 

Than sin hath snares, and hell hath darts." 

But let God's ministers meditate, weigh well, 
and make no mistake in the presence of waiting, 
wishful, expectant and perishing men. Go into 






OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 113 

no beaten pathway in religious work, simply 
because less effort may be needful, copy no min- 
isterial worker, because his style and methods 
have been crowned with success ; nor be a servile 
imitator in matter or manner, diction or delivery 
of distinguished preachers, or eminent and grand 
revivalists. In native purity, in unaffected sim- 
plicity, do the work of God, " rightly dividing 
the word of truth," giving each his portion in due 
season. Especially should God's servants be free 
from pulpit airs, pulpit hobbies, and trifling speech. 

" He that negotiates between God and man, 

As God's ambassador, the great concerns 

Of judgment and of mercy should beware 

Of lightness in his speech. 'Tis pitiful 

To court a grin, when you should woo a soul ; 

To beak a jest when pity would inspire 

Pathetic exhortation : And to address 

The skittish fancy with facetious tales, 

When sent with God's commission to the heart." 

Let them adhere to an unaffected style, to 
legitimate methods, and thus with sincerity and 
zeal move in the sphere that God ordains. There 
is such a thing as a happy blending of the beauties 
of truth with forms of expression, style of 
delivery, tones of voice, and qualities of action, so 
as to seem in perfect harmony with the peculiarities 
of the occasion or state of feeling. Naturalness 
is always taken at its value. A studied attitude 
is readily detected even by the untutored observer, 



114 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

and put at proper discount at the bar of human 
judgment. Catching on to the novelties of in- 
ventors in the realm of religious work, or seeking 
after the loud and startling for effect, may serve 
its purpose for the day, but neither will the work 
or workman endure the test of time. But Heaven 
guided, failing not, keeping pure, and keeping 
true, the preacher's work is the grandest ministry 
that human life affords. 

"I saw one man, armed simply with God's word, 
Enter the souls of many fellow-men. 
And pierce them sharply as a two-edged sword, 
While conscience echoed back his words again ; 
Till, even as showers of fertilizing rain 
Sink through the bosom of the valley clod, 
So their hearts opened to the wholesome pain, 
And hundreds knelt upon the flowery sod, 
One good man's earnest prayer the link 'twixt them and 
God." 




OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 115 



COLLINSVILLE REVIVAL. 






CHAPTER XIV. 

'HE material comprising this chapter was 
furnished by Miss Ida Willoughby. 
" Oct. 15th quite a number of persons, 
some professed Christians, some unmoved sinners, 
some, possibly, penitent souls, were gathered at 
the Methodist Church in Collins ville, Madison 
County, 111. It had been announced that the 
Revivalist, Rev. G. W. Wilson, would begin a 
series of meetings that evening. Failing to reach 
Collinsville by the first evening train, Mr. Wilson 
did not arrive until 9 o'clock. Still the audience 
remained, and were much gratified by the appear- 
ance of the Evangelist at that late hour. His 
very presence gave a kind of inspiration to the 
waiting audience, and prepared them for courage- 
ous work. His first move was to determine the 
number of professed Christians present, aud thus 
at the outset discover who were his helpers 
Then followed a short exhortation, and one or 
two songs, and dismissal. 

The evening following the service was given 



116 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

in part to the examination of the text, — "Set 
thine house in order ; for thou shalt die, and not 
live ;" II. Kings xx., 1. Here scope was given to 
thought ranging over the ground of life's un- 
certainty, its possible unexpected termination, 
and the importance of preparation for its end . 

Following this at the next evening's meeting 
was a sermon from Mat. xvi., 26. The leading 
thought in the consideration of this scripture 
was : — The attainment of the world's goods might 
bring much trouble and anxiety, and that without 
an heritage beyond life no opulence, no posses- 
sions, no treasure, would be of value. The 
preaching seemed at once to find a responsive 
hearing, and inquiries were soon extorted of 
"what must I do to be saved." The members of 
the church were quickened, and revival influences 
were very soon apparent in the earnest and ready 
work of God's people. As in most meetings of 
this character the timid soon became courage- 
ous, the weak strong, and nearly all aroused to 
put forth a vigorous effort for the salvation of 
men. 

The community of Collinsville consists of a 
heterogeneous mass, though largely composed of 
coal miners, and those mostly are foreigners. 
Some of these latter seem to have had little 
moral or religious culture, and poor opportunities 
for hearing the gospel, or if possible, such advan- 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 117 

tages have not been improved. With these there 
was a class, not large in numbers, who were per- 
sons of educational advantages and social position, 
who in a sense were the leaders of thought, yet 
sceptical and disinclined to any serious considera- 
tion of religious claims. The miners seemed the 
most susceptible, and the beautiful songs and 
earnest prayers of God's children soon touched a 
responsive chord in their nature. As they entered 
into a happy experience they began a most earn- 
est work for their associates, and instrumentally 
did much to further the interest of the meeting. 
The testimony of young converts soon added 
force to the accumulating influences, and so the 
work took an enlarged form and became a theme 
and subject of absorbing interest. The whole 
town came more or less under the awakening in- 
fluence, and many who had been sceptical came 
to see and acknowledge that the Divine power was 
manifest in this visitation. An old citizen re- 
marked, after this wonderful revival had swept 
on in its conquest of hundreds of converts, that, 
" Infidelity is no longer preached upon our 
streets." Influential and leading members of the 
community made a profession of religion and 
came into hearty accord with the work. Two 
hundred and seventy-five during the brief weeks 
of work made a profession of religion, and one 
hundred and eighty-five souls were added to the 



118 



EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



church. The Divine Spirit had been present in 
glorious majesty, and a tidal wave of religious 
power had swept over the village and community. 
The pastor, Rev. T. J. Davis, had been faith- 
ful and earnest in his endeavors to promote the 
work of religion in Collinsville, and found his 
hopes realized and his prayers answered in the 
wonderful outpouring of the revival of October, 
1883. 




OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 119 



SONG AND ITS USE. 
CHAPTER XV. 

" Hail heaven born music! by thy power we raise 
The uplifted soul to acts of highest praise : 
O! I would die with music melting round, 
And float to bliss upon a sea of sound." 

VERY high estimate is put on this service 
in the Bible, and a prominent place has 
been given it in the Christian system. Songs 
are interspersed through the whole volume of in- 
spiration, and specimens are there of touching 
beauty, used as the varied occasions called them 
forth. The pceans of victory were heard in song, 
and emphasized with the timbral of Miriam , when 
Pharoah and his host were whelmed in the waters 
of the sea, and Israel stood exultant beyond the 
power of the tyrant. The women sang, and thus 
gave expression to their joy when David slew 
Goliath, and Saul and his victorious army return- 
ed from the slaughter of the Philistines. And 
when that magnificent temple, whose glory was 
to fill all the lands, and be the wonder of the 
ages, was solemnly set apart for the service of 



120 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Almighty God, Solomon called to his aid, and 
gave important part in that grandest of ceremonials 
to a trained choir, whose music, vocal and instru- 
mental, was to fill the Judean hills with the rich- 
est melody ever evoked from heart or cymbal. 
" It came to pass as the trumpeters and singers 
were as one to make one sound to be heard in 
praising and thanking the Lord ; and when they 
lifted up their voice with trumpets and cymbals 
and instruments of music, and praised the Lord 
saying, for He is good ; for his mercy endureth 
forever ; that the house was filled with a cloud 
even the house of the Lord — for the glory of the 
Lord had filled the house of God." And in after 
years when the people were oppressed, made 
captive, borne along with overwhelming force, 
and disaster came upon the Church in Babylonish 
wars, the leaders of sacred song, with heavy 
heart " hung their harps upon the willows," and 
scornfully and mournfully refused to gratify their 
victors with the sweet songs that had made their 
temple vocal, and had reverberated amid their 
native hills. 

This service, the natural gift of intelligent 
beings, has held its place in all the ages past as 
one great factor in religious work, and is 
destined to form a more prominent part of 
Christian worship in the years to come. The 
Prophet indicates that millennial times are to be 



OF KEV. G. W. WILSON 121 

ushered in in the glad refrains of song, saying : 
' ' The dumb shall sing and the solitary places 
shall be glad for them."' Then every convert in 
the day of his espousal to Christ shall find the 
prophecy verified in the " new song put in his 
mouth," and the "praise unto God," that wells 
up from a glad heart, and flows out in the 
rapturous notes of singing. When he begins his 
journey heavenward his steps are taken in 
keeping with the new and happy symphony of 
the sublime spiritual life he lives, and when he 
ends his pilgrimage on earth, he " comes to Zion 
with songs ;" and the failing notes of earth min- 
gle with the sweet and loud acclaims of Heaven 
— in that " new song of Moses and the Lamb." 

Thank God some phases of song belong 
exclusively to earth, and those of their type will 
have no place in heaven. The awakening and 
warlike, the sad and mournful, the funeral dirge 
and requiem, will never be voiced there, and 
could, if used, wake no responsive chords to 
answer to their note. No, we shall be done with for- 
ever many a piece that did important service in 
the Master's cause on earth, many a hymn that 
thrilled with a glow of inspiration, many a song 
and dirge made needful and helpful, too, in our 
environments of sin, and neath our clouds of 
sorrow, not fitting for that glory state and un- 
dying world. We shall sing no more : — 



122 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

" Show pity, Lord, Lord forgive, 
Let a repenting rebel live." 
Or, 
"Am la soldier of the cross." 

Or, 

" Come on my partners in distress, 
My comrades through this wilderness." 
Or, 
" My latest sun is sinking fast, 
My race is nearly run." 
Or, 
" Hark! from the tombs a doleful sound, 
Mine ears attend the cry," 

And no more will His disciples be called to sing 
the requiem of their Lord and Master, as on 
"that doleful night" before His death they sang, 
mid sob and tear, the last hymn before the 
crucifixion. No, these will be relegated to the 
regions of forgetfulness, or be remembered as 
the worn out garments of an age gone by. But 
how music charms ! What potency in a song ! It 
was this that gave relief to Saul and dispelled the 
"evil spirit" from his presence: and may we 
not from hence conclude that no melody floats 
upon the air, no song of heart content or good 
fellowship ever wakes the dark caverns of the 
lost? Here song has its proper sphere in the 
varied and incessant movements of both secular 
and religious life. How it lulls the babe upon its 
mother's lap, stirs the patriot to noble and heroic 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 123 

deeds, wakes to new and quickened flow the life 
blood of the sluggish church, and rouses to peni- 
tential and believing activity the soul of the 
deadest sinner ! 

Said General Viele : — " It is the solace of man's 
declining years, the voice of harmony, and the 
language that the angels speak beside the shining- 
river." 

Said a minister, who was a practicing physician 
before' his conversion ; — ' ' I attended at the sick 
and dying bed of a young lady, who was a 
Christian girl, and when she was dying, she with 

others sang : 

" sing to me of Heaven, 

When I am called to die, 

Sing songs of holy ecstasy, 

To waft my soul on high." 
When I heard this song, mid these surroundings, 
I rushed into another room and threw myself upon 
abed ; some one followed to call me out. I could 
not go, I said : "I am suffering, I have a tooth that 
pains me, for I was ashamed to confess that I was 
smitten with penitential grief, yet that was my 
real pain, and I sought and found relief for my 
ache of heart, by faith in Jesus' blood." 

A Sunday-school superintendent of to-day 
said: — "I was, in a neighboring village, too 
drunk to think of starting home, was lying down 
in some back room of one of the stores sobering 
off ; across a couple of lots was a Methodist 



124 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Church, and in it there was in progress a Sabbath 
School Convention. I could hear the songs sound- 
ing to ine as the songs of Heaven, so that my 
whole being was thrilled with the touching 
melodies. I got up and started staggering toward 
the place with the deepest consciousness of my 
lost condition, and a determination to seek for- 
giveness, and lead another and better life ; which 
I did from that hour, God both forgiving so vile 
a sinner and aiding me to reform my life. Any 
one who knows of church work knows the im- 
portant place song has in the service. One half or 
more of the religious force in any meeting is 
in this. 

" O what a gentle miuistrant is music 
To piety, — to mild penitent piety ! 
O it gives plumage to the tardy prayer 
That lingers in our lazy, earthly air, 
And melts with it to Heaven." 

Kevivals do not go on, do not take on enlarged 
form, will not make headway against the dull 
formality of churches, and the cold and settled 
opposition of the world, without the song ser- 
vice full and free. When Moody preaches 
Sankey sings, Philip Phillips sings the gospel 
literally in every land, and leaves the preach- 
ing off, Harrison talks, and the grandest choir 
the churches can bring together makes melody 
in the heart, and pours it out in song. Wilson 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 125 

starts a service with a solo, unites the congrega- 
tion in a chorus, and infuses a life and spirit 
power into the gathered throng that the sermon 
of a mighty orator would not evoke. John Wes- 
ley was a wonderful Evangelist, but surely Charles, 
the master of sacred song, ought always to stand 
alongside, and as high on the pedestal of fame and 
honor as his elder and more favored brother. If one 
preached the gospel in its glorious fulness, the 
other sang it in its richest cadence, and we can- 
not, nor ought not, to divorce these wonderful 
revivalists, whose work swept the United King- 
dom, and is now gathering its trophies in every 
land. 

Some way, however, the joyfulness of song 
intensifies as the years sweep on, and while each 
epoch has its corps of noble hymnists, no age 
monopolizes all. To us the songs of to-day, 
burdened with salvation through Jesus Christ, 
Christian work, Heaven and endless life, are sweet 
and sacred as those embalmed in memory and 
made precious by their hundred years of use ; and 
just as much and completely meet the demands 
of our times as those of Wesley, Watts, Dodd- 
ridge, Cowper, Newton, or Heber did theirs ; and 
all Christendom ought to do homage to the grace 
appearing in the songs of Fannie Crosby, Francis 
Eidley Havergall, P. P. Bliss and their compeers, 
as to the grace appearing in the inspired notes of 



126 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

those more ancient worthies. If you awaken 
enthusiasm, if you set the emotional all aglow, 
and mean to touch all sensibilities you must evoke 
the power of song. 

Chorus song must take its place and do its full 
measure of service, we cannot exclude it, it will 
not stay out, nor need we wish to banish it, since 
it joins all voices, touches a chord responsive to 
its note in the dullest, deadest, coldest, hardest 
heart, and permeates the living mass with its 
electric thrill. 

The great revivals of forty or fifty years ago, 
when the effects were visible in bodily contortions 
and extravagant outbursts of feeling, the multi- 
tudes were wrought to this high pitch of religious 
fervor, not by the impassioned sermon, and the 
heaven-moving prayer alone, but by the swelling 
notes of the chorus hymn as it came pouring 
forth in full majestic numbers, or in subdued 
strains sweet as the songs of Heaven upon the 
gathered multitudes. 

" Anon through every pulse the music stole, 
And held sublime communion with the soul, 
Wrung from the coldest breast the impassioned sigh, 
And kindled rapture in every eye." 

Who has not at revival times heard the chorus 
of some favorite piece sung by children in the 
schools, heard it in the stores, and offices, and 
shops, upon the highway and in the fields, by 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 127 

night and day, by saint and sinner, until the very 
air seemed vocal with a praise well-nigh spon- 
taneous and almost universal. And then if cornet 
and viol, and organ combined, can touch the dull 
sensibilities, and start into activity the slumber- 
ing emotions that lie dorment through an hour 
of ordinary routine worship, let all these be joined 
in aid of true devotion and give added zest to 
religious service. 

David, the great Hebrew hymnist, whose 
spirituality and deep-toned piety stand out so pre- 
eminent in all his songs, and so adorned his life 
with ever-during beauty, made voice and instru- 
ment true yoke-fellows in serving God, and wound 
up his melodies with exhortation to universal praise, 
saying : — ' ' Praise Him with the sound of trumpet ; 
praise Him with the psaltery and harp ; praise 
with the tymbral and dance ; praise Him with 
stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon 
the loud cymbals ; praise Him upon the high- 
sounding cymbals." And commingling with the 
song of God's redeemed, sounding like the "voice 
of many waters," was the sweet toned harp, 
touched by the fingers of Heaven's grand orches- 
tral band. If it were sought or needed here is 
warrant enough for the use of instruments in 
devotional service, and an abiding consecration of 
them to religious work wherever and whenever 
God's people might desire or demand them. 



128 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

GIFT OF SONG. 

Mr. Wilson is a born singer. It comes to him, 
the musical turn, as the mathematical, or philoso- 
phical, or linguistical comes to others, bound up 
in the bundle of human life. One might make 
the science a study for an age and fail for want 
of adaptation or natural endowment in that par- 
ticular line. Many an one has seemed to have a 
special fondness for music, and to be able to 
master its dry realities, or catch its symbols and 
hold them firmly in their written forms, who in all 
that pertains to vocal music were utter failures. 
Not so with our subject, he sings as lark or 
nightingale, because the instinct dominates in his 
constitution. Unlike many he makes no effort, and 
song is easy, and in singing it would seem, to an 
observer, he would never weary. Then he unites 
with musical voice and gift of song a taste chaste 
and cultivated, a readiness to seize on those utter- 
ances of the purest and best of modern hymnists, 
and the strongest and richest of the old, and give 
them a most touching and effective interpretation. 

Hymns, new and old, gathered from all the 
sources of hymnology, are employed to arouse, 
inspire, or cheer, as occassion may require, and 
are called up at will, remembered by the score or 
hundred, and used to fit in every niche made possible 
to put them in revival work, and here and there 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 129 

to set them as parts of a grand mosaic of religious 
beauty. Then to the gift of song he adds the 
other, of ability to play, and when an organist is 
not at hand, or does not suit him, or there is any 
obstacle in this direction, he assumes the post of 
musical performer with grace and ease, and by 
the very diversity of his talents he enlarges the 
scope of his influence. Then his performance is 
not a perfunctory one, as too often is the case with 
the stated chorister or organist, but is of the kind 
in which the heart is aflame, and the spirit is en 
rapport with the song and theme. When exhort- 
ation fails, and prayers are lifeless, and there 
seems a point has been reached where every ser- 
vice has declined in fervor, and unction and 
spiritual power are wanting, then the Evangelist, 
if he have not himself the ability to call in mighty 
prayer, so as to bow the very heavens and bring 
reanimating grace, must stand apparently non- 
plused and defeated for the hour. But if he be 
an organist, and have the gift of song, and voice 
as sweet as the chime of silver bells, and judg- 
ment quick to determine the course to take and 
expedient to adopt, and taste to select the very 
piece and melody for the moment, he is at his 
very best, where there would be an awkward 
dilemma for another worker ; and here at times 
our subject gave scope to that fulness of power 
that comes of a double gift in a single line of ser- 
9 



130 EVANGELISM, AND EEVIVAL WORK 

vice. True there may be reasons for, and occasions 
of, seeming failure, where any class of gifts and 
any number of them would be unavailing, and 
what under ordinary circumstances might seem 
easy, with other surroundings might become the 
impossible thing to do. Still a nice discriminat- 
ing power, a quickness of perception to catch the 
idea of what is needed, and is the very thing to 
do at a given time — the song, the chorus, the 
words, the melody, to use — is important almost 
beyond conception, and may be classed as a gift 
besides. This done at a juncture in religious ser- 
vice, and a whole worshiping assembly may be 
carried up by imperceptible gradation, or by one 
vast stride, to the very heights of religious fervor 
and spiritual power. So the revivalist of any, 
and all times, must, if he achieve the greatest 
measure of success, put a proper estimate upon 
the song service, and employ it in his work as a 
grand religious force. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 181 



NASHVILLE REVIVAL. 
CHAPTER XVI. 

"Faith works with power, but will not plead 
The best of works when done ; 
It knows no other ground of trust 
But in the Lord alone." 

if^Tf N the morning, Sabbath, December 30, at 11 
Sj ( o'clock, Bishop Bowman preached the dedi- 
*^ cation sermon of the new M. E. Church of 
this place. At the evening hour Mr. Wilson preach- 
ed. The Bishop said: — "If there had been no 
deficiency after the morning effort at trying to 
raise the indebtedness for the building, I would 
like to follow the sermon with an old fashioned ex- 
hortation and call for mourners, but while I am 
precluded from this by the necessity of the hour, 
I yet predict that there will be a gracious revival 
as a spiritual result of the grand undertaking of 
this people consummated here to-day." 

The series of meetings thus begun on the day 
of the dedication of the church, continued to the 
27th of January, 1884, closing at that time with 
jubilee services of great interest. A large num- 
ber (300 persons it was said) had made a pro- 
fession of religion, — many had united with the 



132 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

various churches of the place, while much was 
done to quicken to greater activity all professedly 
Christian people. 

It is not always that we can by any human 
means of admeasurement nicely adjust the bounds, 
or certainly reckon the possible scope, of God's 
work in revival times. When divine power is 
manifest in awakening and converting grace, and 
multitudes are swayed by its force, it may be 
safe to say the influence begotten at such a time 
is to sweep on and on into the vast eternities. It 
seems almost as presumptuous to put our estimate 
on the value of what God does in revival seasons, 
as to " lay our hand upon the ark to steady it," 
in these exciting visitations. 

The Nashville Democrat said :-»-" The revival 
of religion now going on here is the largest ever 
known in the history of our city, the work accom- 
plished being far greater than that of the 
memorable revival of about ten years ago, and it 
is not yet over. For a week the meetings were 
poorly attended, but interest was soon aroused, 
and the numbers in attendance steadily increased 
night after night. At this time the new M. E. 
Church is incapable of holding all that come, and 
on Sabbath night an " overflow" meeting was 
held in the Southern Methodist Church by Eev. 
Mr. Cross, the house being crowded. Among 
those who have professed conversion are some of 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 133 

our well known business men, and many persons 
of mature years, while others evidently sincerely 
mean to live better lives." 

Again, this paper said : — " The work here has 
certainly been a remarkable one. Men who have 
not been inside of a church for years have attend- 
ed these meetings and have made a profession of 
religion. The methods of Mr. Wilson are peculiar, 
and sometimes his talk is so plain and direct as to 
give offense to some ; yet these same persons are 
afterwards reached by his appeals and drawn into 
the fold. He is a magnetic talker and a fine 
singer, and appears filled with faith that the word 
of God can reach the hearts of the people and 
accomplish wonderful results, as we all know it 
has done in Nashville." 

Rev. D. Caughlin, the pastor, had by continu- 
ous and persevering effort, conducted the church 
building enterprise to a successful completion, 
and now had the happiness, not only of seeing it 
dedicated to the worship of God, but of receiving 
the evidence of the Divine acceptance of the offer- 
ing in the wonderful revival that followed. 
Church building when necessary for comfort and 
appearance, and is done in the right spirit, is 
ordinarily a great means of grace to the builders. 
Some almost dying churches would find this a 
great promoter of vitality and power, and by this 
method secure both health and growth. 



134 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

PRAYER. 
CHAPTEK XVII. 

"Lord, what a change within one short hour 
Spent in thy presence will prevail to make 
What heavy burdens from our bosoms take, 
What parched grounds refresh, as with a shower! 
We kneel, and all around us seems to lower; 
We rise, and all, the distant and the near, 
Stands forth in sunny outline, brave and clear." 

^HE human instinct itself suggests devotion. 
The scriptures and this innate sense are in ac- 
cord. But the uninstructed and unenlight- 
ened make egregious blunders in following the 
promptings of a blind instinct. Such know not 
whom they worship, nor how to worship, nor why 
they worship. The Bible only makes this clear. 
And as prayer is one of the most important duties 
it enjoins, and the most needful of all the exercises 
of Christian life, the scriptures make it the sub- 
ject of most careful and exhaustive treatment. Its 
province, its character, its scope, and object are 
all set forth. Some of its special characteristics 
ought not to be overlooked, and among these is 
that of the universality of its obligation. It is 
not a class duty, nor a caste privilege, but a 
common service enjoined on all. f^ Prophecy was 



OF KEV. G. W. WILSON. 135 

the function of men appointed and qualified for 
that peculiar line of religious duty. Preaching 
is a speciality confined to men chosen and called 
to that particular work. Very many have none 
of these obligations resting on them, they have no 
qualification of this kind, no duty in such direc- 
tion. 

But, as regards the matter of prayer, it is quite 
another thing. Here each one has a fitness for 
the duty, and a special need requiring its per- 
formance. It is one of those forms of duty that 
is adapted to human nature and human necessities, 
and man's present state of being. So there is no 
condition in life where it is not fitting, no state 
in grace where it may be dispensed with, no em- 
ployment where it may not be helpful, and no 
measure of success where it may not give enlarge- 
ment. 

"In desert wilds, in midnight gloom, 
In grateful joy, in trying pain; 
In laughing youth, or nigh the tomb; 
O when is prayer unheard or vain?" 

It is as much a force to the private Christian as 
to those in official life, and puts the humblest one, 
in point of privilege, on an equality with those in 
most favored circumstances. God's invitation to 
the throne of grace makes no discriminations, and 
His promises and pledges are alike to all who 
may call upon His name. And success depends 



136 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

not upon position nor artificial helps, such as grace 
of speech, form of words, manner of address, nor 
any adventitious circumstances. It is not the 
person, nor the words, the plan, nor style of 
utterance, but the spirit of the performance, that 
gives the quality to prayer. Two important ele- 
ments must enter into any prayer to make it 
an acceptable offering to God. 

First, the petitioner must come in proper frame. 
Second, must " ask according to His will." 
It would be vain for one to expect God to notice 
a mere address, or give, in answer to human-like 
dictation, or bestow what He has no where prom- 
ised us to give. For in so doing He would 
evidently frustrate the very end sought to be 
attained by the ordination of the service. It is 
evident it is intended to cultivate a sense of our 
dependence on the Divine Being, to lead us to 
humility of soul, and aid in the development of 
religious character by the most intimate com- 
munion with God. Then every encouragement 
needful is given to incite us to its proper use. 
The idea is everywhere set forth most plainly in 
His word, that the things good for, and profit- 
able to us, He will freely give. "No good thing 
will he withhold," is doubtless in perfect har- 
mony with His intent and His action, too. What 
is good for us ? is a question we might not 
always know how to answer, hence He makes His 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 137 

"will" the final arbiter of our cause. " Accord- 
ing to His will" are drawn the lines of limitation, 
and within these lines of the Divine Sovereignty 
and wisdom lies a large range of liberty to man. 
What God will do, in given cases, where He is 
sought unto for aid is one of those things to be 
determined rather by results than our ardent wish, 
or by cases we may call to mind as seeming 
parallels. Where he denies the thing we ask, he 
doubtless, if we are worshiping aright, will give us 
more than the petition claimed. So at least the 
end is gained in blessing, if it be not in the be- 
stowment of the very blessing that we sought. 
We pray for a revival of religion, it may not 
come in our arranged-for time, nor in accordance 
with our specific plans, and yet our prayers may 
have answer in our own spiritual quickening, in 
the improvement of our faith and patience, and 
in the final visitation for which we asked, when 
" God's set time to favor Zion comes." If the 
answer does not come in the form in which we had 
hoped, yet often it comes as truly in another form. 
A lady wrote from Washington Territory :-' ; 'If 
you should conclude that there was a work for 
you to do here, above what you have already 
done, which we sincerely hope you may, it would 
seem like an answer to an old, but oft repeated 
prayer of mine, for the Lord to send some one 
over to help us." Yet the help had come, in 



138 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

means to build a church in an unexpected manner, 
and this earnest pleader had not recognized the 
answer, of her " oft repeated prayer," because 
the form of blessing was different from that that 
she had had in mind. 

Another wrote: — "We had an only child, a 
boy, and we had asked God to guide us that we 
might bring him up in the way that he should go, 
and had cried mightily to Him to save our child 
from the world and sin. But when He did by 
taking our boy to Heaven, I was not prepared to 
receive this as the answer to my prayer, and yet 
it was." And may not many an answer come to 
earnest and believing prayer, and yet the worshiper 
fail to recognize the fact from its coming in an 
unexpected manner, and in a form so unlike that 
the human mind had shaped ? 

Some well-defined objects are set forth, as such 
as God will be always ready to bestow. 

" If ye then, being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children ; how much more shall 
your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him ;" Luke xi., 13. 

And may we not conclude that with this gift 
comes nearly every conceivable f orm of good per- 
taining to religious life, comforting and sustain- 
ing grace, and revival work as well. 

" Holy Spirit! fount of blessing 
Ever watchful, ever kind! 



OF KEV. G. W. WILSON. 139 

Thy celestial aid possessing 
Prisoned souls deliverance find. 
Seal of truth, and bond of union, 
Source of light and flame of love, 
Symbol of divine communion 
In the olive-bearing dove!" 

Then we may always confidently ask this gift, 
our greatest good, and man's surest help and 
guide. Prayer must be always an important 
factor in bringing about a revival influence, and 
in giving it its full significance and force. Indeed 
it has brought about many a revival, the credit of 
which has gone to the visible and prominent actors 
and agencies in the arena of religious life. It 
may be that for weeks, and months, and years, 
quiet, obscure, feeble, and non-pretentious Chris- 
tian people, have invoked the divine blessing on 
the word, and in their homes have besought the 
Lord to send " refreshings from his presence," 
and the revival coming at length as the answer to 
these prayers, was thought of as the result of 
other causes. Then when revivals come and God's 
power is manifest in awakenings and conversions, 
these are not from among those for whom no 
prayer was ever offered, but of such as have been 
the subjects of prayer through all their life. Many 
of the children of pious parents are gathered into 
Christian folds in revival seasons. Many an 
answer comes, that has seemed long delayed, on 
the occasion of these special visitations. And it 



140 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

is just as much the answer as if the request had 
been given when the petition was offered up. The 
accumulation of requests that may go on for years, 
finds at length its counterpart in that fulness of 
blessing that comes in glorious and well-nigh 
resistless overflows of grace in revival seasons. 
The blessing exceeding the request and going 
beyond the thought or expectation. Many of the 
laws of action, in the natural world, are carried 
over into the spiritual realm, and are asdominent 
in the latter as in the former, and although the 
processes are not capable of so clear demonstra- 
tion, yet the facts are nevertheless apparent, and 
the harmony established beyond a doubt. It is 
the course of nature to amplify the grain sown 
by the process of germination and growth. So, 
too, it is a law of grace to demand a deposit of 
truth, the offering of prayer, or the example of a 
holy life, or all, in order to the multiplication of 
Christian character and forces. And this law of 
God is true to itself in any sphere. It may be 
true that the periods are not so well defined in 
the spiritual as in the natural world. Yet under 
ordinary circumstances time is an essential ele- 
ment. " One man soweth and another reapeth." 
Prayer in a large measure may be exceptional 
to this rule, yet there are often needful human 
services, connecting with the divine influence, in 
the fulfilment of the promise to answer prayer. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 141 

So time may or may not be an essential element 
in the process of offering a petition and receiv- 
ing its desired and expected answer. There are 
conditions when delay would thwart the desire of 
the suppliant and the plan of God in requiring 
our invocations. A present danger needs present 
action, and a present religious movement a pres- 
ent and continuous divine propulsion. So if 
one is straightened and finds it is now, or not at 
all, and all former resources have been exhausted, 
then the time of prayer and its benefits are con- 
current. God has set no limitation to His action 
as regards the mere matters of place or periods. 
" Daily bread " is needed daily, and we may ex- 
pect our daily prayer to find its daily answer* But 
if we pray " Thy kingdom come," it is in expect- 
ation of the fulfilment of desire in a general form, 
rather than in a particular manner, in a growing 
spiritual influence rather than in present over- 
whelming force . Our judgment, enlightened by 
the reading of the promises of God, must aid us 
in determining what we may expect in the way of 
present and seemingly miraculous intervention in 
answer to our prayers. 

But in the midst of revival meetings to pray for 
the awakening and conversion of souls is one of 
the desires begotten by divine influences then 
prevailing, and is a petition at once indited by the 
Holy Spirit, as well as suggested by visible objects 



142 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

of danger and distress. And many a prayer 
during a revival meeting has had every element in 
it needful for its greatest possibilities at the very 
moment uttered ; and has been a kind of inspira- 
tion wherein the " unutterable spirit groanings" 
were feebly voiced by the human being. Such 
hours all have witnessed in revival work, such 
matchless prayers have heard, such tides of 
heavenly glory sitting earthward as the suppliant 
poured out the fervid breathings of the soul to 
God. 

" Sigh then breathed 

Unutterable, which the spirit prayer 

Inspired and winged for heaven with speedier flight, 

Than loudest oratory." 

So again and again, the devout may come, and 
coming may succeed. God does not circumscribe 
by number, does not hamper by periods or 
narrow the influence of petition to family or kin- 
dred, nor curtail our asking by the paucity of the 
provisions of His grace or a limited capacity, or 
willingness to give. 

But He does encourage to largeness in every 
sense in our requests, saying: — "Hitherto ye 
have asked nothing in my name ; ask and ye shall 
receive that your joy may be full," and, "men 
ought always to pray and not to faint," and by 
declaring that "Whatsoever ye shall ask the 
Father in my name I will give it you." These and 
very many other kindred passages encourage us 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 143 

to expect large measures of his grace and abun- 
dant blessing to come to us in answer to earnest 
and believing prayer. That great differences 
appear in the capacity of persons for this exercise 
is not to be denied. Some seem especially gifted 
in public prayer. Yet, doubtless this may result 
in part from the cultivation of the prayerful 
spirit, a delight in its exercise, greater faith in 
God, and a more literal interpretation of the 
promises and encouragements given in the word of 
God. With such there is more of the simplicity 
of the child, less of human reasoning, more of un- 
questioning Christian trust, less of the rationalis- 
tic and philosophic modes of examination and 
comparison. 

The Harrison manner is an illustration of what 
is meant: — " I have asked God, and believe 
Him." And do not such find that "according to 
their faith," so are God's answers to them. 
Pious living, bringing us near to God, free from 
all irregularities of word and temper, and faith- 
fulness in every Christian duty, will aid in giving 
power to the pleader, success to the suppliant, 
and efficiency to the prayer of the believer. It is 
one of those duties, the neglect of which brings 
disaster to the religious life of the individual, and 
loss of moral power to Christian churches. 

" O strong, up- welling prayers of faith, 

From inmost founts of life ye start, 

The spirit's pulse the vital breath 

Of soul and heart." 



144 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



JACKSONVILLE REVIVAL. 



Centenary M. E. Church. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

V N the 28th of January, 1884, Mr. Wilson 
begun his work in the revival meetings at 
Centenary, that had been in progress for 
some weeks under the conduct of the pastor, Rev. 
M. D. Hawes. This proved to be the longest con- 
tinued effort, and in point of numbers, both in at- 
tendance and making a profession of religion, the 
most important, of all Mr. W's meetings up to 
the present time. It was a long drawn vigorous 
contest, in which a great religious force was 
marshalled to do battle for the Lord, proving 
grandly successful in its results ; and stamping 
the revivalist as a skillful and able leader of the 
larger aggregations of Christian soldiery, and 
showing him to be a competent manager in a long 
and difficult campaign. The co-operation of the 
pastors and members of various churches brought 
together a strong corps of religious workers, 




CENTENARY CHURCH, JACKSONVILLE, ILLS. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 145 

whose concert of action did much to create a 
spirit of enquiry, and give forcefulness to every 
special means employed for awakening and saving 
men. The congregations increased from week to 
week, until at length the seating capacity of the 
church was exhausted and crowds of anxious 
people thronged the aisles. There was no dis- 
order, no confusion manifest, even with the multi- 
tudes that filled the sanctuary from time to time. 
There were weeping penitents, rejoicing believers, 
delighted pastors, thoughtful hearers, devout 
worshipers, and a reverent assembly in most 
beautiful blending, and in completest harmony 
with the times and services. It is not possible for 
any human power to bring together such aggrega- 
tions of humanity, and hold with such dominating 
sway, and keep alive an interest so intense for 
continuous weeks and months. The most inspir- 
ing strains of music, from choir, or band, or 
orchestra ; the most impassioned force of human 
oratory, with the most varied performance possible 
to arrange for, would at length grow tame if not 
energized with a theme Divine, and an all-pervad- 
ing spirit influence. 

" One, the dread rushing Wind, 
But many were the tones of praise, 
Love guiding each to find 
His way in music's awful maze. 
Many the tongues, the theme was one, 
The glory of th' incarnate Son, 
10 



146 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

How he was born, how died, how reigns in Heaven, 
And how his spirit, now to his new-born is given." 

Christ the crucified, — an exhaustless theme; 
forever rich, varied, and inviting ; — and the in- 
visible Holy Spirit, ever present, vitalizing Chris- 
tian work and religious service, will never wane 
in potency, nor waste in fragrance, nor fail in 
beauty or attractiveness, while men shall live or 
time endure. 

No ; man is impotent alone, — his words are 
empty sounds, his well-forged chain a rope of 
sand, his portraiture a very daub, his melody 
simple discord, and his grandest nights completest 
failures, unless the Divine is the living, glowing, 
moving factor of it all. It is God who bares his 
arm, and goes forth triumphant in revival work, 
and man must humbly bow in recognition of His 
power. The city papers gave daily accounts of 
the meetings, and both the Journal and Courier 
dealt in a kindly and candid manner with the work 
and the workers. 

From the files of these papers we have made 
extended extracts in the pages that follow. 
Daily Journal, January 29th and 30th : 
" Rev. Geo. W. Wilson, the Evangelist, opened 
out in charge of the Centenary revival last night 
and showed himself a real master at such work. 
The basement of the church was well filled by a 
very deeply interested congregation, who were at 






OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 147 

once fully captured by the Evangelist. Eight 
came to the altar for prayer and several of the 
eight were hopefully converted. Scores came 
forward and offered their hands to the pastor and 
the Evangelist in token of their purpose to seek 
the salvation of their souls and secure a greater 
fullness of blessing as the indispensible prepara- 
tion for the work of the Master, now opening 
with such encouraging and hopeful promise. He 
is unrivaled in revival meetiug tact, and the small 
multitude of nameless matters which open the 
hearts of the people and put them under the con- 
trol of the Evangelist. His thoughts are evangeli- 
cal and biblical, and presented with an earnestness, 
simplicity, and naturalness which command the 
attention and regard of all hearers. He is mighty 
in prayer. He is a good singer. He is full of 
personal magnetism which makes his approaches 
to individuals well nigh resistless. More about 
him hereafter. 

"REV. GEO. W. WILSON, REVIVALIST. 

" Who is he ? What about him any- 
way. First, he is an Irishman. Second, 
being an Irishman, he hails from Ireland, although 
ne left there at so early an age as to have brought 
none of the brogue with him. He was born at 
New Boss, Wexford county, Ireland, ' of poor, 
but respectable parents,' and is now about thirty- 
one years of age. Third, he is of Methodist ex 



148 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

traction, of Methodist antecedents, and a Metho- 
dist revivalist of the first order. By the latter 
we mean that his whole evangelist work is con- 
ducted upon the basis of Methodist theology, 
Methodist traditions and Methodist experience. 
He is a duly accredited member of the Southern 
Illinois Annual Conference, of excellent standing 
with his brethren of that body, having been a 
traveling preacher in that conference for about 
eight years. He was a rapidly rising young man, 
whose wonderful success as a revivalist in the 
circuits and stations to which conference assigned 
him early attracted the attention of his brethren, 
and finally impressed the conference with the con- 
viction that he should be released from pastoral 
work and be sent out as an Evangelist. So at 
the last session of his conference, September, 
1883, he was accorded the supernumerary relation 
and sent out in the evangelical field. Since that 
time he has been sweeping through the churches 
as a very blaze of revival power. Since Septem- 
ber, 1883, he has conducted revival campaigns at 
Bunker Hill, 111. ; Gillespie, Collinsville, Macon, 
Woodboro, Clement, and Nashville, and over 900 
souls have been converted to God through his 
instrumentality since the date above named. In 
further answer to the question, ' What about him, 
anyway,' we have to say that he is of slight 
build, somewhat under the^ average stature, of 



OF REV, G.fW. WILSON. 149 

sandy complexion, with a|frank, genial, openlike 
Irish countenance that wins you by its geniality. 
He is a fine singer, — quite the equal of Chaplain 
McCabe, as some will believe who heard him sing 
' My Mother's Hand ' at the close of the after- 
noon meeting at Centenary yesterday. He is a 
fine preacher as well as a powerful exhorter. 
His pulpit work is characterized by clear insight 
into the work ; by great skill in grouping the 
work into cutting, crashing, convicting cumula- 
tions ; by keen analysis of the working and 
motives of the human heart ; by ready and apt 
application thereto of gracious appliances as ex- 
hibited in the Word ; by unvexed naturalness ; by 
great earnestness and sympathy, and by the con- 
stant exhibition of a great stock of reserve powers 
ready for use as emergencies arise." 

After some days the Journal gave the follow- 
ing description of an evening service : — 

"The basement of Centenary was crowded to its 
utmost capacity last night, and a hundred or more 
went away unable to find seats. A more interest- 
ed congregation never listened to a preacher, and 
few preachers have ever dealt out God's saving 
truth with more earnestness and fidelity than 
did Wilson, the Evangelist, last night. He preach- 
ed upon the Pharisee and the Publican. The 
truth was made to fairly scorch. The hypocrite 
and the formalist were blasted ; the joenitent and 



150 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

the sincere and faithful believer were richly com- 
forted. At every service the great resources of 
the Evangelist are shown up, and he appears in 
some new relation to the work. Last night it was 
not his powerful prayer ; nor his bewitching 
song, nor his superb generalship. It was the rare 
faculty of interjected exhortation. Between the 
solemn and able utterances of the grandest truths 
of the evangelical system there came the short, 
sharp and earnest words of tender and pathetic 
exhortation, which at once riveted attention to 
the phase of the enquiry reached at such a point, 
and operated to carry a gleam of comfort and en- 
couragement to honest hearts." 

On the 10th of March the Courier reported as 
follows : — 

" CENTENARY REVIVAL. 

"It won't stop ! The leaders in the work have 
arranged three times to close the work, but it 
just won't close ! Last night another vast multi- 
tude of people crowded every inch of seating and 
standing space in the church, and the interest 
swept everything before it. As to results, it was 
the grandest day of the meeting except one. 
February 10 was slightly in advance of yesterday, 
as seen in the entries in the secretary's record, 
thus : February 10, at altar, 48 ; professed con- 
versions, 32 ; March 10, at altar, 45 ; professed 
conversions, 31. Supposing the meeting would 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 151 

close last night, the service was appointed to begin 
at 6.30. Before the time for the last ringing of 
the bell every seat was occupied and hundreds 
stood iu the aisles. Praise service ; no sermon ; 
altar work began very early in the evening ; the 
penitents came in crowds ; the professed conver- 
sions were quick, rapid, and very clear. Services 
day by day, hereafter. Nobody knows where, or 
what the end is to be. God is in it. Man should 
keep his hand off the ark. He will. Amen !" 

The following is from the Journal, and is its 
final "say "in regard to Mr. Wilson and the 
great revival : 

" CENTENARY REVIVAL. 

"Let us have this final 'say' about it. The 
Evangelist being gone, we can now talk about 
him. We proceed. If we were his enemy, we 
would feel actually silenced by the man's mar- 
vellous success in our midst, but being his friend, 
we are not less impressed by the facts of his cam- 
paign. His work here has already been pro- 
nounced the greatest religious wave that has 
struck our community for a quarter of a century ; 
and the more it is scanned and analyzed the more 
readily will that claim be recognized. To be 
sure, the way was well prepared for him ; but he, 
too, was well prepared for the way and the work 
which opened to him here. No meeting for the 
salvation of souls ever had about it less that was 



152 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

objectionable ; no excesses ; no sensationalisms 
in method or teaching, but simple, plain, honest, 
straightforward work, to save ruined men and 
women and bring them to the light and the life. 
A careful study of the man and the work reveals 
the following as the probable secret of his suc- 
cess : First — earnest, deep, abiding piety. Second 
— rare homilitical talent. He is a fine preacher, 
he never fails. He is splendidly equipped for his 
work in the pulpit. He always succeeds in put- 
ting into the thought and upon the consciences of 
his hearers some great, burning revelation as to 
personal demerit, personal responsibility to God, 
or a loving Christ, which stick to them and often, 
very often brings forth fruit unto life. Third — 
great tact. Fourth — a devotional make-up of 
Tare religious sensitiveness and delicacy, and a 
great stock of personal sympathy. Fifth — mar- 
vellous common sense, which never deserts him 
nor leaves him betrayed into follies which tax the 
forbearance of his friends and exhaust apologetic 
literature. Following hence, are God's blessings 
upon his work. He rallies the spiritual forces of 
a church into great compactness, efficiency and 
aggressiveness. He does succeed. He imparts 
an impetus to church life which lasts. He has 
gone out from us, but his good work remains and 
will abide in good lives, happy deaths and strong 
churches. Amen. The following is the latest 



Of rev. g. w. wilson 153 

exhibit from the records of the secretary and tell 
a very comforting story in regard to the real 
success of Centenary revival. Total penitents at 
altar 529, total prof essed conversions 476, heads 
of families 87, male adults not heads of families 
69, females not heads of families 172, under 15 
(nearly all of whom are over 10) 148. 

"The foregoing has been penned to afford many 
the latest facts about the man and his work. He 
came to us January 28th and left on March 12th. 
He has calls to Quincy, Clayton, Carlyle, Kash- 
ville, Pittsfield, Springfield, Farmer City, Shelby- 
ville, and other points in other states. He is 
also engaged to conduct several camp meetiDgs 
the coming season. The prayers of the Metho- 
dist churches of Jacksonville will constantly 
follow Rev. G. W. Wilson, Evangelist. Amen" 

While other ministers were hearty in their 
efforts and did much to aid in these revival meet- 
ings, we deem it not invidious to make special 
mention of Doctor Short, President of " Illinois 
Female College." With indifference, or even 
passive assent, on his part there would have been 
a serious obstacle in the way of approach to the 
large number of young ladies under his official 
supervision. But with his hearty co-operation, 
and earnest effort for the conversion of the stu- 
dents of the college, there was at once placed 
within easy reach of the religious influences of 



154 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

the hour a most promising class of subjects, and 
a most hopeful and inviting field for Christian 
labor. As might have been wished and expected, 
with the encouragement he gave, the largest part 
of the students in the school who were not before 
religious, made a profession during the progress 
of this meeting. And who may estimate the im- 
port of a work which in its progress gathered as 
its trophies, young ladies of prominent social 
standing, of trained intellects, and scholarly 
attainments, and scattered in their places of resi- 
dence in every direction through the land ! God's 
call in meetings like this is very distinct and very 
far-reaching, destined to ring adown the decades, 
and centuries to come, in notes on distant hills, 
and far-off vales, along the rivers flood, and 
beyond the seas, to answer to the symphonies of 
Heaven. 

* ' Such a visitation may vanish like the light- 
ning, but it will leave behind : — 

" A voice that in the distance far away 
Will wake the slumbering ages." 

The influences set in motion by great moral 
and religious movements in revival times are not 
to be circumscribed to fields within the scope of 
our narrow vision, nor limited to the lifetime 
period of living actors, but are to sweep the cir- 
cuit of the globe and the round of distant ages. 
And any worker, be he lay, or ministerial, who 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 155 

has the privilege and honor of effective service in 
revival seasons has cause for thankfulness, and 
reason for rejoicing in being permitted thus to 
link his name and memory with happy destinies. 
Then : 

"Do thou some work of high and holy love, 
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know — 
Shall bless the earth while in the world above ; 
The good begun by thee shall onward flow 
In many a branching stream, and wider grow; 
The seed that in these few and fleeting hours, 
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow, 
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers, 
And yield the fruits divine in Heaven's immortal bowers." 

Kev. M. D. Hawes, the pastor of Centenary, 
was indefatigable in his labors, wise and prudent 
in his management, hopeful, patient, and courage- 
ous in the long campaign, in which he stood at 
the front, beside the earnest Evangelist, doing 
battle for the Lord . And much of the success in 
these great meetings depends upon the heartiness 
and unflagging faith and zeal of the pastor. And 
we take occasion here to speak a word in com- 
mendation of choristers, organists, and singers 
who did so much for the success of the revival 
meetings mentioned in this volume. It would 
be a real pleasure if it were at all possible or in 
keeping with the plan of this record to give the 
long list of names, that in this way did such 
faithful work for Christ, and so much that was 
helpful in saving souls. 



156 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

At Centenary a large choir of from 20 to 40 
persons, under the direction of W. R. McPher- 
ron, led the congregation in the most hearty and 
inspiring notes of song from time to time, and 
thus gave a stimulus to every worker, and often 
furnished an almost irresistable incentive to action 
to the thoughtful and awakened soul. 

It is only justice to that class of laborers, who 
employ their gift of song in continuous and often 
wearisome effort in revival seasons, to say that 
the spiritual influence of the meetings is largely 
dependent upon this service, and that they not 
infrequently furnish inspiration to evangelist and 
pastor, and rise at times to become the most im- 
portant factor in the work. 

"The words that bear a mission high, 
If music-hallowed, never die." 




OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 157 



REVIVAL CONVERTS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



" The Saviour smiles upon; upou my soul 
New tides of hope tumultuous roll! 
His voice proclaims my pardon found ; 
Seraphic triumphs wing the sound! 
Earth has a joy unknown to heaven, 
The new-born peace of sins forgiven : 
Tears of such pure and deep delight, 
Ye angels! never dimmed your sight." 

'• It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, 
which the Father hath put in his own power," 

S touching the outpourings of His Spirit 
and his gracious visitations. How mysteri- 
ous the operations of that Spirit on the 
consciences and hearts of men ! How diverse its 
work in the manifestations of his grace ! His 
prerogatives in the redemptive scheme are as 
positive and well-maintained as in the realms of 
the providential or moral government of God. 

' ' He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on 
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and un- 
just." So of His own purpose and plan He gives 
direction to the whole elemental order. He 



158 EVANGELISM, AND KEVIVAL WORK 

causeth the changes in earth or air, the per- 
turbations or the even flow, the healthful action, 
or the poison breeding stagnation, as He may 
choose for the perfecting of some grand plan, to 
be attained only by these inexplicable combina- 
tions, whose special bearings may lie forever be- 
yond the vision of the finite mind. 

Not less mysterious are the Divine procedures 
in the realms of grace. A single object seems, 
however, ever dominant in the multiplied forms 
of divine manifestation in the affairs of men, 
namely, the securing by combinations of a well- 
nigh limitless number of agencies, the greatest 
good to every human being, and, possibly, to 
every one of every other order of intelligence as 
well. Yet in varied channels, in different forms, 
and in faint or glowing light, in great or feebler 
measure, He visits the heirs of grace. If in in- 
fluences sweet as that of " Orion or Pleiades," or 
the silent charms of the "still small voice," God 
comes in visits of His grace, winning and sub- 
duing to himself the souls of men ; it is as all-em- 
bracing, all-controlling, all-pervading, and com- 
plete in triumph and attainment, as when in form 
of storm, or wind, or mighty shaking, or cloven- 
tongues, He gathers the trophies of redeeming 
love. When he works His work of years in the 
slow process of growth and development by seeds 
of truth sown in the human heart, and brings 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 159 

forth the ripened fruit in the changed character 
and life, it is as much God's work as when he 
" cuts it short in righteousness," as in Pentecostal 
times, or with a Saul of Tarsus, when by flashing 
light, and voice in the parting heavens, and by 
visible signs, are seen the redemptive agency of 
Jesus. The child may be a Christian from his 
childhood as Timothy, and certify his claims to 
Christianhood as clearly and incontestably as the 
arrested, awakened, and suddenly renovated man, 
who points you to the day and hour, the time and 
place, and circumstance of his conversion. It is 
not the teaching of the word of God that every 
believer should have the same experience, as re 
gards mere mental exercise, or that the same class 
of feelings should be predominant, or that alike 
violent emotions should prevail, or a sameness of 
circumstance precede the revelation of Jesus 
Christ, the Saviour, and God the Father to man's 
inner consciousness. The scriptures establish no 
criteria by which we could determine the soul's 
relation from any outward and visible process. 
The whole thing in the department of the non- 
essentials is relegated to the individual conscience. 
The variety of methods of approach to God is 
seen in clearest light as illustrated in His word. 

To Namaan, the Prophet said: "Go wash 
seven times in Jordan," — to the bitten Israelities 
the promise was, "whosoever looketh thereon 



160 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

shall live," — to "Peter and Andrew" the Saviour 
said, "Follow me," to Zacheus, who rehearsed 
his deeds, "this day is salvation come to this 
house," to the woman accused of crime by the 
Pharisees, "neither do I condemn thee, go and 
sin no more," — to the blind man, "Do'st thou 
believe on the son of God ?' ' To the dying thief, 
who pleaded to be remembered, — " to-day shalt 
thou be with me in Paradise," and of the publican, 
who "smote upon his breast," saying, "God be 
merciful to me a sinner," "he went down to 
his house justified rather than the other ;" — while 
Paul and Peter said "believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved," — each one thus 
finding gracious acceptance and divine relief. 
The approaches were as varied, as the education, 
family influence, peculiar surroundings, the differ- 
ence in mental characteristics and multiform cir- 
cumstances of the case and time. Yet all these, 
doubtless, combining in mental and spiritual exer- 
cise the elements of repentance, and prayer, and 
faith. Are we not disposed to be too rigid in re- 
gard to forms, too much inclined to measure the 
religion of other people by our own inadequate 
human standard? Did they manifest the same 
emotions, were there the same frames of mind, 
the same physical phenomenon, the kind and 
quality of actions, and the degrees of intensity of 
piritual conflict as there were preceding and 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 161 

accompanying our own conversion ? These ques- 
tions are as unwise as they are illogical in their 
bearing on the subject of the reclamation of the 
soul to loyalty to God by simple trust in Jesus 
Christ. 

"The spring of the regenerate heart, 
The pulse, the glow of every part, 
Is the true love of Christ our Lord, 
As man embraced, as God adored." 
Yet the question of values, in revival conver- 
sions, remains one of wide significance and abid- 
ing interest, and commends itself as worthy of 
careful study, and patient, and candid investiga- 
tion. Of what comparative values are revivals, 
of what importance as regards the spirituality of 
the church, and what relative force are they who 
come to the varied church communions through 
enlistments in revival seasons ? 

Now whatsoever agency may beget in men the 
proper frame, and lead the mind into the way of 
approach to Christ and religious service most 
speedily and effectively, — and succeed in the com- 
plete conquest of the heart for Jesus, must stand 
contessed as a grand factor in the category of 
religious forces. Assuredly, measured by this 
standard, no influence in its appreciable results 
can equal this. There is no assumption that the 
regular gospel work is of minor import, or that 
revival work could succeed without the process of 
preparatory movement. Revival work stands as 
U 



162 EVANGELISM, AND KEVIVAL WOKK 

supplemental, not as a superseding of ordinary 
methods. But are not revival efforts indispensa- 
ble in fulfilling the highest mission of the church, 
and in meeting the earnest longings and inspired 
expectancy of the ministers of Christ? Do more 
persons find their way into the believers life and 
church relations by the ordinary or by the extra- 
ordinary means? Which is most effective in 
making converts, the methodical and systematized 
services, or the irregular and erratic? That is 
which agenc}^ is productive of most decisions, of 
most cases of positive action, of the greater num- 
ber of tangible conversions ? Of course there can 
be no question as to which has furnished the 
greater number of motives, implanted the more 
numerous germs of truth, and furnished the 
larger amount of material for the foundation of 
religious character and life. It would be far 
from our purpose to disparage family religion, 
Sunday-school teaching, public preaching, prayer 
and other meetings, but the rather to encourage 
greater faithfulness in these as supprying the con- 
ditions to make revivals the grand effective agents 
they are, and ought to be. But does not a revival 
arousement seem indispensable to make effective 
these other and less demonstrative forces, and for 
the development of the fullest activity of every 
spiritual agency? Do we not need the stimulus 
of concerted effort, the vigorous processes of 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. IGo 

revival excitement, and the clearly defined pur- 
pose of personal appeal for present decision and 
action ? Then the whole question is not who will 
make the more efficient Christian, the most use- 
ful member of the church, the revival convert 
or the one discipled in the ordinary round of 
religious work? But can we do enough in mak- 
ing disciples for the school of Christ and leave off 
all the extraordinary means ? Eather, do we not 
enlist more into the service of Christ, and into 
the various religious communions by this than by 
every other method combined ? Could the church 
with its present management, its known course 
of action, its education in the past, and its peculiar 
environments in the present, survive the absence 
of all revival work? Can the church afford to 
neglect the " leadings of providence?" Shall she 
not stir herself for extra work, when she "hears 
a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry 
trees," and prepare for the improvement of 
" times of refreshing," that " shall come from the 
presence of the Lord," and for concerted and 
effective action when the " time to favor Zion, 
yea, the set time is come?" 

It is safe, and wise, and profitable, to go, and 
go in force, where God leads, and enter in where 
he opens the way, and " possess the land " to its 
farthest border, where He gives the church ability, 
and shows Himself as the " Captain of tfye Lord's 



164 EVANGELISM, AND KEVIVAL WORK 

host," to give victory to her banners. Have not 
God's blessings richly crowned revival efforts? 
Where has He so signally shown Himself as in 
spiritual influences, in these grandest movements 
of the Church? What rich displays of His wonder- 
working power in the days of Whitefield, of Sum- 
merfield, of Finney, and of Maffitt ! These days 
of power have left an impress for good on all 
succeeding times. Is it quite good logic to say : 
"Too small a proportion of revival converts are 
found to be true to their profession, and too few 
are found of value as accessions to the forces of 
the Church. If a majority of members of the 
Church are proven to have been brought into their 
present relation through the agency of extraordi- 
nary means, and the most active, useful, and suc- 
cessful of both ministers and laymen found their 
way to a religious life and into church relationship 
by this means, may not this fact itself confute 
the theory of the unsoundness of revival conver- 
sions, and the defectiveness of revival work. 
Can the equilibrium of the church's life be main- 
tained in any other way? If her system runs 
much, as it does, on the grade of low pulsations, 
we need the high to strike the average from ; if 
we have a minimum we shall need a maximum as 
well. So facts and history prove that excite- 
ments in revival work are essential to a healthy 
spiritual life. The mighty influences engendered 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 165 

at these focal points go forth as tidal waves of 
spiritual power. The force of Pentecostal power 
has not spent itself in eighteen hundred years. 
Our plea is for their positive helpfulness both in 
and without the church. They are so decided in 
their character, so unique in action, so clear in 
manifestation, as to compel a notice and attention 
which no ordinary method could command. They 
call out and start in most plain and public man- 
ner, voteries of religion, whose religious career 
is known and marked from its incipiency to its 
end. The very boldness of revival movements 
compel an admiration where they fail of conquest. 
Their helpfulness is beyond the power of our 
computation ! Does it not become an easy thing, 
when the "waters are troubled," by gracious 
influence, and multitudes are gathered at Beth- 
esda's portals to give assistance to the comers 
there for health and soundness, for them with 
adundant helps at hand, to find easy access to the 
Font of Healing? Does not God's power, his 
soul awaking, his soul converting power, seem at 
times to sweep with well nigh resistless force 
through churches, and communities, and peoples. 
Does not this make the whole process of con- 
viction, penitence, prayer, and faith, a short, 
sublime, and glowing work, to impress the lesson 
of human impotency, and Divine prerogative. 
Do not radiations go forth from such centres of 



166 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

religious influence and activity to penetrate a vast 
area of surrounding gloom and moral night? Do 
not noble emulations seize the breast of fellow 
converts, and lead them to most vigorous action, 
to most persistant effort to outstrip each other in 
the heavenly race, and do the most worthy and 
sublime work for the Divine Master ? 

Still objectors urge that there is too much of 
the emotional, too much of mere sensation, too 
large a degree of human agency, in such seasons 
of special effort. Then a common and well-known 
incentive is abundantly supplied in revivals that 
are large and sweeping in their movements — 
namely : — the influence of majorities on human 
action, — so by this and other counts men dispar- 
age revival work, and the value of such religious 
converts. Our answer is, the principle to govern 
one in deciding for a reformed and religious life, 
had been supplied by the ordinary methods, and 
the emotional needed now to rouse to present 
action comes from an aggregation of forces, and 
the nearer approach of revival workers. 

The judgment had long before decided the ques- 
tion as to the paramount claims of religion to the 
life and service, but now the will and conscience 
are made the pivotal points of attack and special 
pleas, and stirring appeals are made for the con- 
quest of these gateways to the human heart. Mere 
concessions, such as may be made to the Pastor or 



OF REV. Q. W. WILSON. 167 

any religious teacher at any time, will not satisfy 
the evangelistic worker. His end is attained only 
when present and decided action are secured, and 
this point is reached in ordinary cases only by 
touching the fountains of emotion, and this by 
what men are pleased to call the power of excite- 
ment. Then the current of popular feeling run- 
ning heavenward need not be other than a pro- 
pulsive force to send forward with accelerated 
speed the newly embarked voyager to celestial 
shores. And one may be just as certain in regard 
to the motives governing decisions under revival 
influences, as in the dead calm of weekly minis- 
trations. Surely the Divine agency at such times 
stimulates the mental and moral perceptions, 
quickens the consience, assists the hesitating will, 
keeps prominent the highest motives, and sheds 
new light at every step of progress taken in the 
direction of obedience and a godly life. So no 
condition seems wanting to make the " revival 
convert" the most completely equipped of any to 
be conceived of. Thoroughly awakened, wisely 
counseled, fully under Divine influence, brought 
to feel the mysterious and heavenly force swaying 
multitudes, coming in contact with elements of 
religious power, that permeate the very atmos- 
phere ; why may not one start happily in the 
Christian race mid such surroundings? Where 
are the pulsations of spirituality so high as in 



168 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

revival seasons? Where are such combinations 
of moral forces ? Where does the soul find such 
exultant seasons ? What Divine displays of sav- 
ing grace ! What hours of struggle and glad 
deliverance to glow in memory for ever ! How 
God punctuates the career of the renewed being 
on its first written page ! What associated history 
crowds a day ! How the scene and experience 
are lived over through a whole long life ! 
" That voice which bade the earth 
From chaos and the realms of night, 
From doubt and darkness calls us forth 
To God's own liberty and light! 
Thus made partakers of His love, 
The baptism of the spirit ours, 
Our grateful hearts shall rise above, 
Renewed in purposes, and powers." 




OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 169 



CARLYLE REVIVAL. 




CHAPTEK XX. 

<^|\-f^E are indebted to Kev. V. C. Evers, the 
Pastor of the M*. E. Church in Carlyle, 
for the following sketches of this revival 
season. They appeared in the Union-Banner 
during the progress of the meeting. They have 
been carefully piepared, are discriminative, com- 
pact, and fitting in their make-up, and we insert 
them entire : 

THE REVIVAL. 

March 27, 1884. 

" Perhaps no time in the history of our little city 
of maples has there been such a religious awaken- 
ing as now. People of every class and type of 
belief are talking, and while in this as in all other 
cases, all are not agreed in the minutse, yet a pro- 
found impression seems to rest upon the whole 
community in regard to accountability and 
destiny. 

" The series of meetings commenced at the M. 
E. Church, Tuesday evening, the 11th inst., and 
was conducted by the Pastor, aided by Eev. T. 



170 EVANGELISM, AND KEVIVAL WORK 

C. Sharp and Samuel Walker, and also by the 
hearty co-operation of the Christian people of the 
different churches of the city. Arrangements had 
been made to secure the services of an Evangel- 
ist, which was done in the person of the Rev. G. 
W. Wilson, who has recently held meetings at 
Collinsville, Nashville, and Jacksonville, closing 
at the latter place after having witnessed the pro- 
fession of faith in Christ of some five hundred 
persons. He came into the service at this place 
on Wednesday evening, the 19th inst. The aud- 
ience was a large one, and was earnestly engaged 
in a service of prayer when the Evangelist en- 
tered the room to begin his work. 

" With surprising naturalness and great earn- 
estness the work was taken in hand and has con- 
tinued from the first with increasing interest. 
The remarks of the Evangelist are often intensely 
searching, calculated to lead persons to ' sit 
alone with their consciences,' and come to a 
knowledge of their own individual sins and needs. 

" The first discourse of the Evangelist was on 
the preparations, upon the part of professing 
Christians, for a revival : First — Get all out of 
the way, malice, prejudice, unfulfilled promises, 
etc. Second — Have faith in God's promises. 
Unbelief is our own fault, and is one of the great- 
est evils of the churches. Third — Keep the com- 
mandments. Do what God requires. Expect 



OF REV. GL W. WILSON. 171 

not to receive of Him without doing His will. 
"The discourses have all been searching in 
character, evincing great earnestness in behalf of 
souls. The Christian people of all denomina- 
tions are manifesting a great interest in the meet- 
ings. Each mother, wife, father and friend 
seems burdened with the welfare of their loved 
ones. All the services, both in the afternoon and 
evening, are well attended, and intense interest 
is manifested on the part of all attending. The 
singing is lead by a choir of twenty and upwards, 
and this part of the service is excellent. 

April 17, 1884. 
" By the time this issue is in the hands of our 
readers, this marvelous religious revolution will 
have been actively in progress four weeks. View- 
ing it from the present heights its power beggars 
description. Four weeks ago but few persons 
dared to hope for anything more than an in- 
gathering from the Sabbath Schools, or a few 
from the class of younger and tenderer hearts. 
One cannot imagine the strangeness of the scene 
at one of the praise services without first under- 
standing that until lately hardly a score of de- 
voted workers could /be found in the churches, 
and most of these were the wives and mothers of 
unconverted husbands and sons. Up to the be- 
ginning of these meetings more than twenty wives 



172 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

and mothers, who are members of one or another 
of the Protestant churches in our town, had un- 
converted husbands and sons. Now, in the 
praise service, a leading lawyer, and one of these 
husbands, stands up and says, ' I praise the 
Lord for a religion that enables us to know we 
are saved, and that to such a religion I am per- 
mitted to add my testimony.' Another, 'I thank 
God for a faith that has made the last five days 
of my life worth more than the preceding twenty- 
five years.' A leading business man : ' I recog- 
nize the claims of the blessed Bible ; I believe 
the Christian religion is all for us it claims to be, 
and I take the promises as mine.' Another: 'I 
thank the Lord that as I have lately turned to 
Him, I have found acceptance ; and now we have 
a Christian home and family worship.' A lead- 
ing physician ; « I have lived in Carlyle many 
years, but feel that I have but just entered upon 
the real enjoyment intended for us.' Another: 
' Thank the Lord for a praying father and wife, 
and for the Christian home we now enjoy.' And 
so on, until a hundred and more have testified, 
most of them having started during these meet- 
ings. 

" Just before the move became so manifest, a 
Divine influence seemed to be operating marvel- 
ously all over town. Men who had not attended 
the services but a few times seemed deeply con" 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 173 

cerned. The different orders and societies of 
town were active among themselves talking up 
the interests of the meeting and concerting ar- 
rangements for an almost unanimous surrender at 
the foot of the Cross of Christ. Some men did 
much toward working up an interest among their 
associates and friends before they themselves had 
made a move publicly. Such expressions as the 
following were very common on our streets two 
weeks ago : * If you will agree with me to go to 
the altar to-night, give me your hand.' 'The 
prayers of a Christian father for forty years, or 
of a devoted .wife for ten years, or of a good 
mother, ought not to be longer trampled under 
foot.' Another marked means of success has 
been the earnest manner in which the Christian 
people have worked in the congregation when the 
call would be made for persons seeking Christ. 
Three of the leading professional and business 
men attribute their most serious reflections to the 
entreaties of timid but earnest ladies to come to 
Christ. Truly we cannot know at once the ef- 
fects of faithfully doing work for God. 

" The work of the Pastor seems to be to have 
a general oversight of the whole proceedings, 
keeping all obstacles cleared away, and everything 
in the best possible shape for the onward progress 
of the work. He is besieged daily by inquirers 
and by persons in behalf of their friends, like a 
physician in the midst of an epidemic. 



174 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

" Perfect harmony among the workers of the 
different churches has prevailed — so much so that 
it would be impossible for an observer to distin- 
guish between them. 

" The singing throughout has been grand. The 
choir has consisted of from twenty to forty of 
the best singers of town, and their songs have 
been at times most enrapturing to Christians and 
melting to sinners. One after another of that 
noble band of singers yielded to the invitations 
of mercy, until quite all of them entered experi- 
mentally into the sentiment of their song. 

" A communion service was held on last Sab- 
bath, at which 165 participated. Such a day was 
unprecedented in all the past history of this 
place. The Evangelist seems almost as fresh and 
vigorous as when he begun. His power of physi- 
cal endurance is remarkable, preaching twice a 
day through the week, and sometimes thrice on 
Sunday, besides the prayers and the other work 
necessarily attendant upon each service. Add to 
this the constant singing while not otherwise en- 
gaged, clear and distinct above all the rest, and 
often a solo while all else but himself is still as 
death, and you may have some idea of his labors. 
No less remarkable is the variety and pungency of 
his preaching. He strictly adheres to the sim- 
plicity and purity of Bible truth, without regard 
to the opinions or prejudices of men. The grea. 



OF REV. a. W. WILSON. 175 

underlying cause of his success is the apparent 
susceptibility to spiritual impressions either from 
the Divine side or from the congregation. 

" The peculiar needs and characteristics of the 
audience seems to be understood upon his first 
entrance into the room. So remarkable has this 
been that persons have repeatedly asked after 
the service : ' Who told him about me ?' He 
has refused information as to the wants and needs 
of any one as viewed from the standpoint of a 
friend, neighbor or pastor, and has been moved 
in the different lines of thought by the silent im- 
pressions gathered from the surroundings. To 
look upon the results as now seen, no one can 
doubt the genuineness of his work ; and we feel 
sure we speak the sentiment of the Christian 
workers when we say we are not disappointed in 
him as a successful and wise winner of souls. 
May the Lord give him direction, and influence, 
and power, and souls, wherever he may go, as he 
certainly has done in Carlyle." 



17(i EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



THE CONVERT'S INFLUENCE. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



" Let us aid all we can, 
Every woman, every man, 
Smallest helps if rightly given, 
Make the impulse stronger." 

<Z%\<frr O man who wishes to secure the largest 
measure of success in revival work can 
afford to overlook the minor agencies, nor 
neglect the feebler forces that go to make the 
complement in the roll of religious workers. He 
is the more skillful captain whose discerning eye 
sees the importance of keeping in its greatest 
efficiency the ''rank and file" of every army 
corps. So, too, the true leader in religious work 
never fails to recognize the value of the modest 
worker, the non-pretensious toiler, in the whiten- 
ed harvest field , 

" Where the servants of the Lord, 
A busy multitude appear." 
There are none too small, whom the spirit 
moves, none too young whom the Saviour calls to 
speak a word or do a work to honor Christ and 
help his cause. None but with God's blessing, 
may aid in forceful way, the greatest ministerial 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 177 

leader of any time or land. Then there are occa- 
sions and circumstances giving an added import 
to the agency of the feeblest of all God's children. 

In revival seasons the one upon whom you look 
as the first to move in a heavenward direc- 
tion, and of whom you think as standing at the 
head of a long list of revival converts, is natur- 
ally enough invested with peculiar interest. Such, 
too, other things being equal, have exerted more 
than the ordinary unit force. They have furnish- 
ed the key for the opening of the mystic founts 
of human feeling and human interest. They 
have shown the possibilities of the time. They 
have appeared as the " handfuls of corn to shake 
as Lebanon." They have been the "first fruits" 
of the coming harvest. The " earnest" of the 
grand ingathering of souls to follow. So have 
served as an inspiration to all classes of religious 
workers. 

Once in a village years ago, the Pastor and 
people had labored hard and long with no appar- 
ent success. The meetings had progressed for 
weeks, when, on a certain evening, the moral 
darkness had become intense. Hope had seemed 
almost to fail, all were wearied with many and 
exhaustive efforts, all had been done it seemed 
possible for man to do, but " wait": — then there 
came in sudden and unexpected form a change. 
One young man in the congregation had found 
12 



178 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

that the accumulated religious force of this long- 
drawn effort was more than he could withstand, 
and now in this hour of singular interest, of doubt 
and hope, his relentings came, his nature yielded, 
and mid sob and tear he sought the Lord and 
found his pardoning mercy. Then with heart 
of bounding joy and glowing love he begun that 
active ministry, lasting not for weeks alone, but 
many a year — described by Cennick : — 

" Then will I tell to sinners round, 
What a dear Saviour I have found, 
I'll point to thy redeeming blood, 
And say, behold the way to God." 

One followed another, and so the work went on 
until the awakening and revival influence swept 
through all the region round, and scores were 
brought to Christ. God's people, worn and 
wearied with their long, hard struggle, 
found rest, while happy converts, with their 
unbounded enthusiasm and delight, went for- 
ward with the work. Does not any newly- 
saved being have, as part of that spiritual 
heritage that comes with the regenerated nature, 
a love for souls seemingly overshadowing almost 
every other feeling? Does he not forget himself? 
Does he not go impelled by an inward force to 
seek and find some perishing one to win to Christ? 
Is it not his experience the psalmist gives? — 

"Come and hear all ye that fear God, and I 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 179 

will declare what he hath done for my soul." 
Who so active ? Who so loving in their spirit ? 
Who so freshly endowed with power? While the 
Evangelist studies and plans through the days of 
a meeting's progress, the ones whose religious life 
has just begun are busy going "out into the 
highways and the hedges," and through the 
" streets and lanes," saying : — 

" Sent by my Lord on you I call; 

My invitation is to all ; 

Come all the world ! Come, sinner, thou, 

All things in Christ are ready now." 

The momentum is increased by the force and 
influence of every convert added to the body of 
believers. A new argument is given by every 
accession, a new strength imparted, and the warm 
flow of new blood infused gives a fresh vitality 
to the body. Then adding members to the 
family of the Christian household means sub- 
tracting a corresponding number from the ranks 
of Satan. We fail to catch the import of 
the help to be derived from persons so inex- 
perienced, so ignorant of the words and forms of 
truth, so unaccustomed to the use of the ordinary 
implements of religious work. Here the Divine 
power is clearly manifest. These weak "vessels" 
show that the " excellency of the power is of God, 
and not of men." Much of what the young con- 
vert has, the older one has lost ; where they have no 



180 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

familiarity with forms, no readiness in the use of 
terms, or ability in public effort, they do have 
simplicity, genuine love and zeal, and a freshness 
that betokens a near approach to God. These 
are the spiritual ' ' babes and sucklings out of 
whose mouth He hath ordained strength, because 
of his enemies, that he might still the enemy and 
the avenger." It is not a rare thing for one 
youth to influence a schoolmate, and that one 
another, until whole classes are brought into a 
new life and happy spiritual communion. The 
modest workers are the largest number of all the 
effective force in Christian churches. They num- 
ber the thousands where others are only tens and 
hundreds. They are not engaged to gain a 
reputation, to achieve a fame, to secure position, 
nor appear to be prominent actors in the grand 
drama of Christian or philanthropic efforts, but 
in their narrow sphere, and in unostentatious way 
are toiling almost unobserved because the " love 
of Christ constraineth them." 

" Such is their life here ; 

Not marked by noise but by success alone : 

Not known by bustle but by useful deeds, 

Quiet and gentle, clear and fair as light, 

Full of its all-penetrating power, 

Its silent but resistless influence; 

Wasting no needless sound, yet ever working 

Hour after hour upon a needy world." 

They have not fallen into the ways of those of 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 181 

age and more experience, doing things in routine 
form, or perfunctory manner, but from a heart- 
felt love and delight, and with a readiness and 
eagerness that brooks no delay, and that seeks 
for and makes opportunity. They go forward re- 
gardless of conventionalities, that with older ones, 
would regulate religious action. To them it is 
the millennium of life, the golden age of spiritu- 
ality, the banquet day of gospel grace, and they 
seem to feel that light may shine in full-tide-glow 
on every human being as now it beams on them. 
The mind at such time is in peculiar frame, the 
emotional is largely dominant, while intense 
spiritual activities are awakened, and all that per- 
tains to religious life is invested with a more than 
earthly beauty. 

The Divine and spiritual enrobe with more than 
rainbow hue all forms, all orders, all beings, all 
creatures high and low, and once more creation 
seems an Eden. The world stands renewed in 
beauty, and all earth's sounds melt into the melody 
of the skies. Churchly people, churchly life, 
churchly service, and churchly ministrations, fill 
the mind by day and crowd it in the visions of the 
night. Then God's church seems to answer to 
the glowing portraiture of David: "Beautiful 
for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount 
Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the 



182 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Then it is,— 

" Zion hears the watchman singing, 
And all her heart with joy is springing, 
She wakes, she rises from her gloom ; 
For the Lord comes down all glorious, 
The strong in grace in truth victorious, 
Her star is risen, her light is come ! " 
Such is the " crown wherewith God crowns" 
the convert "in the day of his espousals and in 
the day of the gladness of his heart." Is it 
strange, then, that one moved by so divine an 
impulse should go forth to active, loving service, 
and that the new-born force should manifest its 
winsome power in drawing others to the same sole 
source of " grace and truth?" 

" What we have felt and seen 
With confidence we tell 
And publish to the sons of men 
The signs infallible." 

How numerous are the agencies on the 
human side of awakenings and revivals ! How 
multiplied the forms of manifestation of 
religious power ! How insignificant seem the 
beginnings of religious revolutions ! How feeble 
and obscure the agents for their inauguration ! 
A dim dawn may usher in a glorious day. 

Let us learn not to " despise the day of small 
things," and to " despise not these little ones," 
of whom the Saviour spake. And let no man 
count too much upon himself, but rather re- 
cognize the law of interdependence, as God's 
order, among the agents of religious work. To 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 183 

encourage and vitalize by proper stimulant every 
source of religious power should be an abiding 
purpose with every leader. Evangelists owe 
much to converts. If these were inactive, every 
effort at progress would be futile. If the newly 
enlisted were wanting in the esprit de corps of 
the grand army of believers, the ranks would 
soon be depleted, the banners furled, the force 
disbanded, and the warfare cease. But while 
they come to swell the numbers, they come to 
swell the force, to give an added momentum to 
the moving columns, and help in the world'sgreat 
conflict. 

Let us wisely employ, carefully foster, ration- 
ally and religiously encourage the young and 
timid, and make the convert even a greater 
power than heretofore, by giving more attention 
to their important relation to revival work. He 
shall succeed best, other things being equal, who 
shall make most of every help at hand. And 
that revival be the farthest reaching in its influence 
and yield the most enduring fruits, which number- 
ed the most active, earnest, and continuous 
workers among its converts. Then let the revival- 
ist look to these, for they will not disappoint the 
expectation, if they be genuine children of the 
kingdom. 

" Scorn not one drop; of drops the shower 

Is made, of showers the waterfall, — 

Of children's souls the power 

Doomed to be queen o'er all." 



184 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



OTHER MEETINGS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



" Come, here is work and a rank field— begin: 
Put thou thine edge to the great weeds of sin; 
So shalt thou find the use of life and see 
Thy Lord at set of sun, 
Approach and say, ' well done!' " 

(f^f[.T is not for us to know where in our varied 
^2jJ fields of effort the most good has been accom- 
l> plished. "Man looketh on the outward 
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 
We estimate by numbers, excitement, seeming 
interest, visible tokens, and the common judg- 
ment of those who have witnessed God's gracious 
manifestations. We may be very wide of the 
mark. Some seeming failure in preaching may 
have far more abundant fruit and better results 
than sermons delivered under much more favor- 
able auspices, and with apparently far greater 
effect. So, too, of revivals of religion and revival 
effort. 

We naturally sum up results by a count, and 
decide on our success by evidences that are tang- 
ible to the senses, and are outlying on the surface 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON 185 



too, yet, are, possibly, greatly fallacious. The 
measure of success in religious efforts cannot be 
reckoned up in order, by any mathematical cal- 
culation, nor by any process that may apply to 
the ordinary business affairs of life. A single 
convert, in a revival effort that was written down 
a failure, may be of more value as a religious 
agent, and an instrument of saving men, than a 
hundred other converts, of a gracious work that 
was noted everywhere as a grand success. One 
thing is evident, the Evangelist, or Pastor, makes 
no less vigorous effort, no less thorough work, 
where he seems to fail, than where he finds com- 
pletest success, and judged of in this light, a 
meeting even though having no large apparent 
fruit, is not a failure. May not the two phases 
always be expected and be written down as the 
seed soAving and the harvesting of religious work? 
If so, is not one to be classed in every sense as 
the equivalent of the other? 

Mr. Wilson found this two-fold phase to revival 
work. At some points there seemed little appar- 
ent fruit, yet there was no less hearty labor, 
indeed there was more exhaustive effort than 
where there was the most satisfactory results, 
and the grandest manifestations of gracious power. 
Success, or what men call success, makes work 
easy, and lightens every burden of the worker. 



18(3 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

But the best judgment of calm, deliberative men 
will always be that he who does truly and well 
his part, whether it be in endeavors to promote 
revival influence, that may seem largely fruitless, 
or in doing what may appear at once to reward 
his toil, can never fail. 

Mr. Wilson had all the variety of results com- 
mon to evangelical workers, and neither was pros- 
pered to such extent as to give him an undue 
sense of human importance, and lead him to 
reckon himself infallible in his work ; nor yet 
was defeated so much and so often as to be over- 
come and disheartened by continuous failures. 
His meetings at Clyde and Clement were of such 
import for the mere villages, where they occurred, 
as to mark them as wonderful Divine manifesta- 
tions of awakening and converting grace. 

At a number of points, where revival efforts 
were made, the displays of grace were not so 
marked, nor the results so satisfactory, yet more 
or less God's converting power was manifest at 
every meeting. A combination of circumstances, 
fortuitous it might seem, aided in making a suc- 
cess in one case, and another set, differing 
materially in character, obstructed the way, and 
thwarted the efforts of the Evangelist and Pastor 
in others, leaving them disappointed in their ex- 
pectations of grand and sweeping revivals, yet 
not disappointed in accomplishing good. But 



OF eev. a. W. WILSON. 187 

who may decide what town, or city, or church, 
or congregation, or people, were recipients of the 
greater good, they who were satisfied, or those 
who had a feeling of disappointment at the result 
of their work? 

" In the world's great harvest day 
Every grain on every ground — 
Stony, thorny, by the way — 
Shall a hundred fold be found." 




188 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



CARE OF CONVERTS. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 



"Within thy temple where we stand 
To teach the truth, not ours but thine , 
May we, like stars in thy right hand, 
The angels of the Churches stand! 
Then when our work is finished here, 
In humble hope our charge resign : 
When the chief Shepherd shall appear, 
O God may they, and we be thine!" 

(f^fffN caring for revival converts those churches 
II with a settled ministry have advantage of 
C^ those under the itinerating plan. It may 
happen, and does as has occurred in our own 
experience, that immediately following a large 
ingathering of souls in the church, the pastoral 
limit has intervened, and without reference to 
conditions or circumstances, a removal occurs 
at a most unfavorable juncture. And the Pastor 
under whose administration the revival occurred, 
and who was familiar with every case, interested 
especially in them, and could call each one by 
name, was removed and a stranger placed over 
them. Surely where the acquaintance has been 
thorough, the Pastor can personally do some- 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 189 

thing to keep and guide the convert, and can 
train more efficiently his own, than another's 
children. But some will argue on this ground 
against the work of an Evangelist. Yet the 
position is not well taken. During the efforts of 
an Evangelist the Pastor is by his side, more or 
less, giving shape to every movement, leads the 
seeker to God's altar, kneels by him in his 
struggles, rejoices with him in his deliverance, 
and keeps his own personality constantly active 
and prominent. He begins his oversight at the 
very outset of the religious career of the convert, 
and continues his watch with the true Pastor's 
interest at every stage of his future progress. 
The Evangelist is a comparative stranger, and 
must remain so, and could neither take the inter- 
est in the convert, nor the convert in him, that 
each would feel under other relations. The 
Pastor is none the less the responsible leader, 
because one is invited to be the prominent actor 
in a series of meetings, and no true Evangelist 
would expect or desire that he should renounce 
his supreme authority in all cases where final 
decisions are rendered. Most persons will feel 
where the Pastor is active in religious revivals 
that he is their natural guide, and look to him in 
some sense as their spiritual father. Certainly 
one of the most delicate, difficult, and important 
offices of the ministry is to care properly for con- 



190 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

verts. To nurture, encourage, build up, and 
develop into full-grown Christianhood, the newly 
enlisted disciple is surely a work requiring both 
grace and skill. In this there is scope for the 
exercise of the rarest tact, untiring patience, deep 
piety, unquestioned interest, the soundest judg- 
ment and common sense, and the greatest 
diligence and activity. The preaching of a pure 
gospel, grand sermons, pathetic pulpit appeals, 
and eloquent public ministrations, cannot supply 
the place of private admonition, personal advice, 
and daily effort, to keep and secure the young and 
inexperienced in the way of Christian duty and 
consistent piety. The efforts must be as varied 
as the characters, as continuous as the flow of 
time, as tender and gentle as a mother's love, and 
all under the constant invocation of Divine super- 
intendence and guidance. 

A very great care and grave responsibility rest 
upon the Pastor in this direction. Goldsmith has 
seemed to view this from the Christian stand- 
point : 

" In all his duty prompt at every call, 

He watched and wept, and prayed and felt for all ; 

Aud as a bird each fond endearment tries 

To tempt its new-fledged offspring to the skies, 

He tried each art, reproved each dull delay, 

Allured to brighter worlds and led the way." 

The writer can never forget the debt he owes 
to Rev. John Anderson, transferred from the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 191 

Baltimore to the Illinois Conference some 40 years 
ago, and Pastor of Greenfield, Ct., in 1847. Our 
memory holds precious the man and his work in 
training, when we started heavenward with so 
little knowledge of what to do, how to do, what 
to read, how to avoid the most dangerous tempta- 
tions, and what means to levy on as the most 
efficient helps in religious life. His was a work 
of fatherly care, painstaking interest, and need- 
ed personal instruction, that it seems to us now 
no stranger could have given. Some very import- 
ant steps may be taken in the outset, in getting 
one properly started in a religious course of life. 
No Pastor ought to overlook the work of fixing 
in the mind of the convert, at the earliest moment, 
the importance of secret prayer, of family prayer, 
if the head of a family, of reading the scriptures 
by course, and speaking and praying in public. 
Then much may be done to strengthen and assist 
the convert, and to develop one into intelligent 
Christianhood, by putting into the hands of every 
beginner a few well-chosen books. 

Each minister may have his own ideal of values 
in the matter of written helps. It may be a work 
devoted to this special line of thought, or some- 
thing not a specialty, yet devotional and instruc- 
tive. Surely religious biography may always be 
valuable in this direction : and " Pilgrim's Pro- 
gress ' ' can never fail to interest and profit the 



192 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

beginner, while a volume of sermons, such as 
Wesley's, or Jay's, or Spurgeon's, may yield a 
vast treasure of incentives, cautions, comforts, 
and encouragements for nearly any religious 
phase of life. No person can be trained in true 
piety without the use of the means of grace ; nor 
can any one be made an intelligent and "thorough- 
ly furnished" Christian without the reading of 
the Bible and good religious books. 

" Happy is the man who hears 

Instruction's warning voice, 

And who celestial wisdom makes 

His early only choice. 

According as his labors rise, 

So her rewards increase; 

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, 

And all her paths are peace." 

It has seemed to us in these later years that 
there has been one special lack in endeavors to 
husband the fruits of revival work : and that may 
be stated best in the form of questions. 

Do we, as our fathers did, look out the most 
promising among the converts with the view to 
their promotion? 

Do we note the special marks of God's pur- 
pose to put some into higher fields of usefulness 
and effort? 

- And do we give such the needed stimulants and 
opportunities to fit them for enlarged tasks and 
greater responsibilities in religious life? 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 193 

Do we bring beginners forward? 

Do we employ all legitimate incentives to no- 
ble, Christian action? 

Do we burden the growing converts with the 
crying wants of earth, and open up to them the 
vision of the possibilities of life, with the assur- 
ance of the great rewards of Heaven ? and are we 
special and personal in our efforts to lead them 
toward that point that God's providence may 
seem to indicate should be their aim? 

We do not say that the Church calls men to 
the sacred office of the ministry : but we do be- 
lieve the Church can open fields of usefulness 
can urge the timid forward, can influence the 
mind in a given direction, can help the anxious 
and conscientious inquirer, aud can in some sense 
give voice to the calls of God. 

From some cause, is not the proportion of 
converts going into the Christian ministry below 
that of former years, and far below what a reas- 
onable expectation might demand? 

Do we as pastors look to our privilege and duty 
in this matter with the care and interest they 
demand? 

How many preachers come from our revivals? 
Rather, how few come from so many and so ex- 
tensive revivals ? 

How many of these young people catch the in 
spiration of evangelistic fire, to send them forth 
13 



194 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

into the great open fields, where multitudes are 
" perishing for lack of knowledge" ? 

Pastors ought to create the very atmosphere 
that brings the inspiration to the young ! 

Is not the race of ministers dying out? Some 
denominations are mourning a dearth in this di- 
rection. Many churches in Christendom are 
wanting pastors, to say nothing of the destitution 
of a thousand million of pagan people. The 
Saviour said : — " Pray ye, the Lord of the har- 
vest," etc. But do we pray? Rather, do we 
not wait, and hope that God will work without 
our call? 

Are ministers coming forth to bless the world 
in answer to our earnest prayer to God to call 
and send them forth? In our mind, there is no 
distinct recollection, in thirty-five years of minis- 
terial experience, of the prayer of any pastor, in 
which there was the earnest plea that God would 
call some member of his congregation to be a 
minister of the gospel. And yet it is just as legi- 
timate as a thousand prayers a thousand pastors 
offer every day, and vastly more important. 
May we follow this line of work earnestly as the 
times demand. Thus far we have viewed this 
subject solely in the light of pastoral oversight. 

In the Methodist Episcopal Church more than 
in some other communions the lay element be- 
comes an important factor in giving direction to 



OF REV. a. W. WILSON. 195 

newly enlisted disciples, and in leading them for- 
ward in religious enlargement and progress. 

From the fact of frequent removals of pastors, 
a larger degree of responsibility must rest on local 
churches. The members must be sub-pastors, 
and especially all capable of giving counsel, and ex- 
perienced in a Godly life should take part in training 
and moulding the Christian character of every one 
coming into Church relationship, and should 
each bear a burden of interest and care for the 
well-being of these feeble and inexperienced ones. 
The failure often, to reap rich results from revi- 
vals, does not lie in the want of thoroughness of 
the work, nor lack of pastoral interest, nor the 
perversity of the material, but in the want of 
efficient and faithful helpers among the laymen 
of the Church. These ought to be foremost in 
every work for good. They ought to incite to 
activity by example, be conscientious in motives, 
religious from principle, exact in their dealing, 
and in every sense consistent with their profession . 
Then the older should give evidence of being in 
an advanced state of spirituality, and thus invite 
others to seek for hio-her attainments in grace . 
With such life there will not be wanting a readi- 
ness to counsel or warn, nor a lack of example 
for such as are striving to shape their religious 
life by a personal and accessible model. All will 



196 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

seek human guidance, and will be governed more 
or less by others. 

"When'er a noble deed is wrought, 
When'er is spoken a noble thought, 
Our hearts in glad surprise 
To higher levels rise. 
The tidal wave of deeper souls 
Into our inmost being rolls, 
And lifts us unawares 
Out of all meaner cares." 

Is it not often the case that professed Christians 
live on so low a level as to give no encourage- 
ment to the younger to hope for, or expect, any 
appreciable progress in religious experience, or 
practical piety. Can the stream rise above the 
fountain ? Or can we expect, ordinarily, that those 
who come into the Church will do otherwise than 
shape their course by the ones already in it, and 
who are their natural guides ? If we would attain 
perfection, we must have a perfect model. If all 
would "follow Christ," such an exemplar, all 
would have, but instead of this, men take his 
representatives, such as bear His name, and fol- 
low them. But to garner the fruits of a revival, 
there must not only be a class with proper char- 
acteristics, but there must be continuous effort 
besides. Too many seem to think when the sea- 
son of special effort is past the work of the 
Church is done. No, it is but begun ! It is more 
to keep, at times, than it is to acquire. 



or eev. a. w. wilson. 197 

Great care, universal interest, patient efforts, 
kindly forbearance and daily watching, on the 
part of those of experience, will do much to make 
any earnest endeavor a success. And a disposi- 
tion of helpfulness will always meet with greater 
or less reward in its endeavors. 

"Joined hand in hand are we; 

With earnest fear 
Let each the other strengthen in his need ; 
In this strange land we brothers are indeed. 
It will not always last, 

Therefore be brave ! 

And soon we all shall be 

Across the wave!" 

Great differences are found in the success of 
churches in their care of converts. Of a given 
number, received in different charges, a large or 
small per cent will be finally numbered as per- 
manent and valuable accessions, depending on the 
character of the members of the local church, and 
their manner of caring for and training the young. 

Often as regards a society, the danger to the 
convert lies in the direction of weakness of relig- 
ious principle, shallowness of Christian experience, 
and a fickleness of a large portion of this given 
membership. The writer had occasion once to 
witness the demoralizing effect upon many young 
persons, and young converts as well, by the lead- 
ership of a majority of influential members of 
the Church setting^ forward, and making these 



198 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

young persons the active agents in canvassing the 
village for the sale of tickets for a church raffle. 
There are times when to be true would cost the 
Christian an effort, and some obloquy, too, — but 
to be false would result in the shipwreck of faith 
and the entailment of vast injury on many who 
had here sought for a model of life. 

Happy if the professed believer would always 
hold the vantage ground in religious life, made 
possible to him ! It is a grand thing to move on 
the plane of correct morals, conscientious action, 
well-defined Scriptural principles, and a clear, 
consistent piety. 

"Art thou faithful? then oppose 

Siu and wrong with all thy might ; 
Care not how the tempest blows, 

Only care to win the fight. 
Fight, though it may cost thy life ; 
Storm the kingdom, but prevail; 
Let not Satan's fiercest strife 
Make thee ever faint or quail." 

Class leaders, stewards, deacons, elders, and all 
official members ought to be examples in holy liv- 
ing, and to feel a constant and lively interest in 
every pilgrim starting heavenward. But all 
unofficial Christians, be they male or female, should 
feel the possibility of a grand success to them in 
the department of training the convert for a use- 
ful and successful religious career. " Bear ye 
one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of 
Christ." 



OF EEV. G. W. WILSON. 199 

" So is it with true Christian hearts; 
Their mutual share in Jesus' blood 
An everlasting bond imparts, 
Of holiest brotherhood; 
0! might we all our lineage prove 
Give and forgive, do good and love, 
By soft endearments in kind strife 
Lightening the load of daily ife." 




200 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



INCIDENTS 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



<f^ff(F CARE had been taken to preserve these 
happenings a large grouping might have been 
made under this head. The striking episodes 
of revival work are both pleasing and instructive, 
and are largely illustrative of differences and simil- 
itudes in the mental and moral make-up of men, 
as exhibited when acted on by the Divine Spirit 
in seasons of gracious visitation. Here we get the 
natural and unstudied expression, the simple and 
inartificial action, the passionate and the passion- 
less form of delivery, the wildest and rudest out 
bursts of sin , and the quietest and sweetest utter 
ances of the saved and purified heart. Here one 
may see the soul at rest, or tossed, as moved by 
the wildest winds of passion. Here the deepest 
notes of wailing may be heard that may fall on 
human ear, this side the sob and sigh of utter 
hopelessness, and sounds of the most extatic joy 
that may be voiced outside the glory world. A 
perfect kaleidoscope of emotional life may be 
found in the many-sided, many-colored, frag- 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 201 

mentary bits that one may gather in a long experi- 
ence in revival work. They glow like sparks from 
the cold, but smitten steel, and tell of the spirit's 
touch and power. Some of these scraps, cooled 
by time, and dimmed by handling, are set before 
the reader here. During a meeting, one physi- 
cian said to another, " It will take a tall Method- 
ist to bring me down." 

Mr. Wilson, during a praise service, sang as 
a solo : 

" I was once far away from the Saviour, 

And as vile as a sinner could be, 
I wondered if Christ the Redeemer 
Could save a poor sinner like me ! 

I wandered on in the darkness, 

Not a ray of light could I see ; 
And the thought filled my heart with sadness, 

There is no hope for a sinner like me," etc. 

Under the influence of this song the strong 
man yielded : went home, could not sleep, came 

the next evening and was happily converted. 

A young lady of skeptical views made light of the 
revival in progress. She was induced to attend 
the meetings, yet after several nights no impres- 
sion seemed to be made. At this time one of 
the children in her school, a beautiful boy, seven 
years of age, dropped dead on the school-room 
floor. This providence touched her heart. After 
a few nights, without solicitation, she came to the 
altar, and falling; into a trance-like state she re- 



202 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

rnained in the church until 2 o'clock in the morn 
ing, when her friends removed her to a neighbor 
ing residence. She came out of this state with a 
heavenly smile upon her face and praises upon 
her lips. When asked if she wished to speak 
she said: "I know now that there is a God, a 
Heaven and Hell, and eternity, and that Jesus 

saves me." A Polander came into the meeting, 

became deeply convicted, and although he could 
not speak a word of English, after a severe strug- 
gle was happily converted to God. One man was 

converted who had lived for years within six miles 
of the church, yet had never heard a gospel ser- 
mon in his life. At the closing service the most 

avowed infidel of the community came to the 
altar and said : "I am not here for mockery ; if 
there is anything in this for me, I want it. I 
dread the thought of annihilation, and if there is 
any hell, I would rather go there than cease to 
exist." Miss R said : "At the commence- 
ment of this meeting these words were ringing in 
my ears, ' Is Jesus mine?' Now these are ringing 

in my ears, ' Jesus is mine. ' " A doctor said : 

" If you do not want what we enjoy, don't come 

to the Houseof God." At S , Miss P , 

bowed at the altar during an afternoon service. 
Through fast falling tears she looked up, and with 
melodious voice commenced singing, during a sea 
son of silent prayer : 



OF REV. G. W. WILSCMS. 203 



He takes me as I am. 






—A young lady deeply moved was earnestly iu 
vited by her sister to come and seek religion, but 
could not be prevailed upon to do so. Before the 
Sabbath following her opportunites had closed. 

She was in eternity. At S , the third night, 

twenty-one persons were converted, and the meet- 
ing continued until midnight. Dr. D , sup- 
posing something unusual was going on, was 
about to dress and go to the church, when his three 
sons came rushing into the room, and throwing 
their arms around him, exclaimed, " O, Pa, I am 

saved. So am I, and I am too." A little girl 

came forward as a seeker, and after a happy con- 
version, said : "I knew I would be blessed, for 

I knew Jesus would meet me half way." At 

J , an old lady, who had passed through severe 

afflictions and had been unable to become recon- 
ciled to the providence of God, during the ser- 
mon received light and help, and went away from 
God's house weeping for joy at the blessing re- 
ceived. At C , the son of a minister who had 

apostatized, was loud in the expressions of his 
infidel sentiments. For this he was reproved, at 
which he became very angry , yet conviction seized 
him in the midst of his passion, and the follow- 
ing evening he came penitently, and was happily 

converted. At N , a man came half an hour 

before meeting. Said he wanted to be converted ; 



204 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

came forward on the first invitation ; was soon 
blessed ; was asked to stay, but said : "I've got- 
ten what I came for, and I must go and tell my 

mother." While the Evangelist was preaching 

a certain evening on the subject of " Believe," a 
man in the congregation suddenly arose to his 
feet, clapped his hands and exclaimed, "O ! glory, 
I've found him. O ! gloiy, I've found him." 
With this such a wave of Divine influence swept 
over the congregation that the preaching ceased, 
and the altar was at once crowded with seekers. 

At J , a man 77 years of age was converted. 

His career had been an eventful and sinful one, 
though he had always had faith in the Bible, and 
would never allow persons to ridicule religion in 
his presence. He is a man of wealth, and has 
begun his religious life with generous deeds. He 
said to the writer, "My change is so great it is 
a perfect marvel to me, and I shall henceforth 
employ my means and time in this delightful 

service." At one pointof Mr. W.'s work there 

were four preachers rejoicing in the conversion of 

their entire families. An old skeptic and opposer 

of religion, said in the presence of his son, " I 
have been under the drippings of the sanctuary 
for twenty years." " Yes," said the son, " but 
father, they have been very dry of late years." 

At one place an infidel began abusing Mr. W. 

A man, standing by, said, " I am a Catholic, but I 






OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 205 

stand up for any man who takes the part of the 

Lord Jesus against infidelity." At N — , while 

working in the congregation, Mr. W. came across 
a young man, who, when asked about God, said 
he didn't know anything about Him ; in regard 
to Heaven, said he didn't know there was such a 
place ; about hell, didn't know about that. The 
Evangelist stopped the singing and asked every- 
body to pray for a heathen young man he had 
found in this Christian land. The next evening 
he was found in tears, asking religious people to 
pray for him, and was soon happily converted. 
Through his agency his father, and brother, and 
sisters were brought to Christ during; the meeting. 




206 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



THE CHILD IN REVIVALS- 



CHAPTER XXV. 



"Take care of the children, nor wasted 

Is care on the weakest of these ; 
The culturer the product has tasted, 

And found it the palate to please. 
There are sheaves pushing higher and faster, 

And age has more branches and roots, 
But dearer are none to the Master 

Than childhood, in blossoms and fruits! " 

— Tappan. 

'HERE is recently a waking up among Chris- 
tian people in regard to the subject of the 
religious training of children, and touching 
the relation of the believer's child to the Church. 
And is it not strange that a question of such im 
port should ever have been measurably obscured, 
partially overlooked, or in any sense underesti- 
mated in Christian communions? 

Of all the denominations the Roman Catholic 
has kept most prominently in view the important 
bearing of the religious training of the child upon 
the future of the Church, and has faithfully 
watched, and carefully indoctrinated, all of the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 207 

young coming under its direct supervision. In 
this there is shown a commendable spirit, and is 
furnished an example worthy of imitation by all 
Protestant people. As we think of this question 
in its various phases, its magnitude becomes more 
apparent at each step of our progress, and our 
interest increases as we approach more nearly the 
subject of the child in the Church, and the child 
in revivals. 

In seeking to find in partial maimer the value 
of childhood as connected with the question of 
religious life, and possible destiny, we have been 
led to examine the subject in a three-fold light. 

1st. In regard to numbers. 

2nd. Touching the moral quality of children. 

3rd. The possible influence of children. 

First, Or Their Number. A very large part 
of all of our race is to be embraced in that divi- 
sion including only the children. The largest part 
doubtless of the saved and glorified throng will 
be composed of those who on earth, were in in- 
fantile years. We make no account of statis- 
tics, for we assume that even the best calculations 
are far from infallible here, for in this count, 
there is a domain not possible for statistics to 
reach. 

In Persia seven-tenths of all the born children 
die while they are infants. In China, and other 
Eastern countries, the female children are cruelly 



208 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

exposed, or in many cases summarily put to death, 
and in any land the destruction of life by disease, 
or neglect, or wilfulness, is appallingly great 
among the children. This may not be by ordi- 
nation, yet it is so by God's permission, and will 
result to his ultimate glory in the salvation of 
men. At least millions of human beings are born 
only to breathe and die, or be removed before the 
age of personal responsibility arrives, and thus 
with no risks but such as the Saviour assumed, to 
be at once removed beyond all possible danger, to 
the same fruition attained by the accountable be- 
liever. So we come to find that of all the saved, 
unless future times shall disclose a state of things 
in God's gracious economy widely differing from 
the present, the greatest number of those re- 
deemed from earth and gathered home to Heaven 
will be composed of such as when on earth were 
in infant life. We wonder not that as this 
thought pressed forward for recognition, John in 
his apocalyptic vision saw that the " small and 
great" were gathered at the Judgment Seat. To 
us a significant fact appears in the phraseology of 
the passage quoted, " small and great." John 
puts it as if the "small" were first, in every 
sense, both as to numbers and importance. 

Others may not incline to estimate the value of 
childhood by the immensity of the number of the 
children, and the saved numbers as well, but the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 209 

fact forces itself upon our mind for recognition, 
as one of the wonders of the redemptive scheme, 
redounding to the glory of Him who is to " see 
the travail of His soul and be satisfied." 

"0 sight sublime, sight of fear! 
The shadowing of infinity ! 
Numbers whose murmur rises here 
Like whisperings of the mighty sea! " 

Again we think of the child as regards : 
Second. Its Moral Quality. Children are not 
sinful in the sense that grown-up people are, not 
so by choice. Nor do the Scriptures ever teach 
such horrid doctrine. 

David said, speaking of his departed child: — 
" I shall go to it," — recognizing its qualification 
and fitness for the heavenly world. God said to 
Jonah : — "Should not I spare Mnevah, that great 
city, wherein are more than six score thousand 
persons that cannot discern between their right 
hand and their left hand." Then look at the 
treatment of them by the Saviour when in the 
world, signifying his estimate of their moral 
character, both by his impressive words and im- 
portant acts. "He took them" to his bosom as 
unspotted human beings, and "blessed them in 
his own and in his father's name." Then in His 
teaching he made them the typical Christian 
character, demanding that all true Christianhood 
should assume this childlike form. 
14 



210 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Said the disciples: — "Who is the greatest in 
the kingdom of heaven? 

'* 2. And Jesus called a little child unto him, 
and set him in the midst of them, 

"3. And said, verily I say unto you, except ye 
be converted, and become as little children, ye 
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

" 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself 
as this little child, the same is greatest in the 
kingdom of heaven. 

"5. And whoso shall receive one such little 
child in my name receiveth me. 

"6. But whoso shall offend one of these little 
ones which believe in me, it were better for him 
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and 
that he were drowned in the depth of the sea;" 
Matt, xviii. 

And when the cold and heartless scribe and 
formal priest rebuked the children for their art- 
less and glad "Hosannas to the son of David," 
making the Temple ring with their hearty praise, 
" Jesus was much displeased" at the complain- 
ing spirit of these religious teachers, and said : — 
"Hearest thou what these say?" "Yea, have ye 
never read, Out of the mouth of babes and 
sucklings thou hast perfected praise." And then 
to give the highest sense of their moral quality 
in their near approach to God, said: — " I say 
unto you, that in heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of My Father which is in heaven." 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 211 

Then in the charge to his disciples he remember- 
ed the "little ones," saying to Peter, — "Feed my 
lambs." So in Jesus' estimate of childhood we 
have a true criterion and guide ; an instructive 
lesson left us to impress us as to our duty toward 
the smallest and feeblest of all our charge. And 
it is a matter for profound thankfulness that the 
churches hitherto slow to act, doubtful of pro- 
prieties, fearful of overdoing in prerogatives, or of 
seeming to deny the established doctrine of 
depravity, are beginning to recognize the true 
character of children, and the relation of those 
of believers, to the churches. 

Another view in which the import of childhood 
appears is in : — 3rd, The possible influence of 
children. " A little child shall lead them" 
becomes an established and unquestioned fact in 
our times, and in the Church's work of to-day. 
The most important feature of religious work the 
world has known, and one assuming enlarged pro- 
portions every day, and becoming grander year by 
year, is that in which the children lead. What a 
marvel in any view that may be taken of it is the 
Sabbath-school interest of the churches of to-day ! 
This all, in its multiform phases, developed from 
the sight of a few ragged, miserable children on 
the streets, looked upon by one whose heart was 
touched with the pitiable condition of these little 
needy ones, a hundred years ago. 



212 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Says a recent writer : — 

"Suppose it could have been given to Raikes at 
the first session of his little school of ragged, 
ignorant, vicious children, taught by four women 
at a shilling a day, to have beheld the fruits of 
his work in a century, as seen by us to-day. 
What thought had he of what he was doing? He 
had no dream that this little Sunday-school was 
the mightiest educational institution in Great 
Britain ; that the poor, rough children before him 
represented scholars that would become like the 
stars of heaven for multitude ; that the four 
female teachers before him represented two 
millions of teachers, who in a century would be 
busy in instructing the young of all classes of 
society the world over ; that the rough room in 
which they stood was the prophecy of tens of 
thousands of commodious and elegant Sunday- 
school buildings, and that the few clumsy books 
before them indexed text books, magazines, 
papers and religious libraries, countless in num- 
ber, that would fall as the leaves of the tree of 
life for the healing of the nations." 

The great International S. S. Convention that 
met in Louisville, Ky., June 11, 1884, was the 
outgrowth of that non-pretentious work of a cen- 
tury ago. In this great assembly were repre- 
sentatives of all Evangelical Denominations, 
from different lands, brought together in com- 



OF REV, G. W. WILSON. 213 

pletest harmony of action, in sweetest fellowship 
in worship, and in hearty and earnest accord in 
philanthropic effort ; all made a grand possibility 
by the "child to lead them." And in unnumber- 
ed agencies for good, and benevolencies set on 
foot to bless mankind, if we search the annals of 
the times we shall find at their beginnings there 
was the influence of the child, possibly the living 
child, more likely still the angel one. 

A Welsh minister asked a little girl for the 
text of the last sermon. The child gave no 
answer, — she only wept. He found out she had 
no bible in which to look for the text ; and this 
led him to inquire whether her parents or neigh- 
bo rs had a bible ; and this led him to begin a 
BibJe Society for Wales. Some good people in 
London said : "Why should we not have a Bible 
Societ}^ for England, too?" And others said: 
"and for France and for the nations of Europe?" 
And then another said: "And why not have a 
Bible society for the whole world?" The tears 
of that little girl led to the formation of the 
British and Foreign Bible Society. 

Such facts may well move us to ponder care- 
fully the question of our responsibility as leaders 
in the fields of Christian effort in the world, in 
pastoral, ministerial and evangelistic endeavor for 
the advancement of God's cause and the spiritual 
well-being of men. It is a painful thought that 



214 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

some religious teachers incline to be apologists 
for children who are disposed to put themselves 
in a Christian attitude while very young, and to 
move in the van of those who seek the Saviour. 
Much the same spirit is often manifest now that 
was offensive in the Saviour's time touching the 
religious movements of the children. A disposi- 
tion is too apparent in the churches among con- 
fessedly religious people to hinder the child in its 
first feeble efforts to come to Christ. Then, again, 
we find attempts to magnify revivals by reports of 
so many people in mature years or advanced life 
making a profession of religion. It is a magnifi- 
cent work to save an old and hardened sinner, and 
it takes a miracle of grace to do it, but the work 
gives no large promise, only of the bare salvation 
of the man at the ninth or eleventh hour of his 
life, for his day has gone to waste. 

Instead of such head lines as we have men- 
tioned, would not wisdom emphasize the conversion 
of the children? Might we not well put in capi- 
tals at the top the grand result of evangelism 
among the "little ones" who are destined to do 
God's work in the religious progress of the next 
forty or fifty years? 

Children have no gnarled and crooked forms to 
straighten up, like those whose figures have been 
wrought into unsightly shape by long and painful 
servitude to sin. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 215 

The preacher starting out to do a lifetime work 
for Christ, if possessed of any adaption for that 
special line of service, might begin, continue and 
end his gospel mission in efforts to save the chil- 
dren, and in this department achieve the greatest 
success possible to any Christian worker. Here 
is the largest, brightest, sweetest field of Chris- 
tian usefulness the world affords, and in its faith- 
ful occupancy there is promise of fame and 
honor and glorious reward. We begin, too often, 
our work in revival seasons, in trying to save men, 
where God's work ends and where the hardened 
of heart are given up. We undertake to save 
the crystalized unbeliever, the confirmed opposer, 
the settled worldling, the continuous neglector. 
If we were to put forth a tithe of the effort to 
save a child or youth we do to rescue one of these 
hoary sinners we should find completest success, 
and add a worker who would give many years 
of faithful service to the Church. 

The word of God by prophecy makes sure that 
in some period " all thy children shall be taught 
of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy 
children." While millennial times are to be 
ushered in with a " little child to lead," the be- 
fore ferocious and untamed peoples, and be the 
chiefest feature of the pictured scene of that 
golden age and day of gospel conquest. 

And may we not well strive to take admeasure- 



211) EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

ment of that heretofore unsolved problem of 
childlife as it relates to the Church of God and 
stands inseparable from the work of every pastor 
and evangelist in revival times. 

" ' Suffer these little ones to come to me, ' 
Was the command of Him, who, on the cross 
Bowed His anointed head, and with his blood 
Purchased redemption for our fallen race; 
And blessed they who to that holy task 
Devote the energies of their strong years, 
Teaching with pious care the dawning light 
Of infant intellect to know the Lord." 




OF REV. G. W. AVILSON. 217 



CAMP MEETINGS. 



Jacksonville Camp Meeting. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



..JHESE records of revival meetings close with 
Hi the brief accounts we give under this gen- 
eral head. 

The Jacksonville Camp Meeting had been ar 
ranged for some months before it occurred. It 
was commenced with an afternoon service, July 
23rd, and closed August 2, 1884. 

The Journal said at an early date of the meet- 
ing, "It is under the leadership of Rev. G. W. 
Wilson, by special retainer and appointment. His 
Avork at Centenary last winter so commended itself 
that originators of the Camp Meeting were anx- 
ious that Mr. Wilson should have charge, and so 
nominated him, and he accepted the trust as early 
as last March. 

" Dr. William Jones andAvife, able co-workers, 
are with Mr. Wilson ; the one as teacher of the 
so-called Higher Christian Life, and the other as 
the leader of the Female Prayer Meetings and 
the children's meetings." 



218 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

These meetings were largely attended through 
the whole time of their continuance, and on the 
Sabbath-day it was estimated that as many as ten 
thousand persons were on the encampment. 

At the morning hour each day Dr. Jones 
preached a sermon touching some phase of the 
doctrine of Christian Perfection, as set forth in 
the Scriptures, and in the standards of Method- 
ism. Some visiting minister occupied the pulpit 
at 2 : 30 p. m. At 5 : 30 the children's meeting 
was held, and at 7 : 30 the regular revival service, 
under the control of Mr. Wilson. He usually 
preached a plain, practical sermon, invited seek- 
ers of religion, and spent some time in work at 
the altar with awakened penitents. 

Of the evening service of Saturday, July 26, 
the Journal makes the following notes : 

" Rev. G. W. Wilson preached his evening ser- 
mon, which, like all his sermons, contained much 
to urge the sinner to accept the truth. He has a 
manner which captures the unbeliever's attention 
and presents truth to him in a pointed way, which 
was unexpected, but unanswerable. The sermon 
last night was on the work of a person after con- 
version, that even then they have a cross to bear 
in bringing other souls to the light. It will take 
the renewal of the entire race to deliver us from 
the perversion of sin. The first and all important 
question is, ' What shall I do to be saved ;' but 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 219 

after this question is decided, the next thing that 
should present itself to a Christian is, ' What can 
I do to save others?' This point was clearly and 
forcibly brought out and impressed on the minds 
and hearts of the people, and will have a grand 
effect in bringing all the Christians on the ground 
to the realization of the fact that they should go 
to work and do something for the cause ; and 
when all these people get earnestly engaged, the 
work of salvation will spread throughout the 
whole community. This was the idea of Mr. Wil- 
son's sermon, and it was a grand one, and was to 
the right point." 

On Sabbath the services began with a morning 
prayer meeting, led by Mr. Seymore, of Franklin. 

The Love Feast was conducted by Eev. W. H. 
H. Moore. At 10 : 30 Dr. Jones preached on the 
subject of the Transfiguration of Christ. Text: 
Matt, xvii., 9. 

The leading thoughts of the sermon were as fol- 
lows : 

" This remarkable occurrence in the history of 
Jesus teaches us that earnest believing of prayer 
always precedes a manifestation of the divine 
glory. 

"2. It teaches us the individuality of the dead. 

''3. It reveals to us the fact that the saints in 
heaven are interested in the salvation of men. 

" 4. That special revelations of God to the 



220 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

human soul are essential preparations for success- 
ful work. 

"5. It teaches us that none but those who have 
been in the presence of the transfigured Jesus 
are prepared for the work or ready to die. 

"6. Finally it teaches us that Jesus is the cen- 
tral figure of the gospel — the abiding One of the 
universe . ' ' 

At 2:30 p. m. Rev. J W. Gaddis, of Cincin- 
nati, preached from 77. Samuel xxiii., 15. At 
night Mr. Wilson preached a stirring sermon from 
I. Tim. ii. , 5. At the invitation given for seekers 
of religion about fifteen persons responded and 
presented themselves at the altar for prayer. 

On Monday Rev. W. N. McElroy preached 
a very able sermon from Matt, v., 17, 18, a 
brief sketch of which we give as reported by the 
Journal: 

" The object of religion is to revolutionize soci- 
ety by taking out all that is bad and introducing 
all that is good. It accomplishes this through in- 
dividuals. Religion assaults only sin. Christ 
fulfilled the civil, levitical and moral laws. The 
Gospel enlarges the claims of the law. The Chris- 
tian is an honest man ; paj r s his debts ; debts due 
men and debts due the Church. The Christian 
is upright, truthful, pure. 

" The object of the gospel of Christ is to im- 
part to morally impotent men power to do right. 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 221 

" We learn from this verse : 

" 1. Nothing will excuse us from the least vio- 
lation of God's law. 

"2. Little things must be attended to. It's the 
little sins that destroy the Christian character." 

Many pastors from distant churches came and 
participated in the services from time to time, ren- 
dering valuable help in the able and interesting- 
sermons they delivered. 

We may say of the leadership of the singing at 
both the Jacksonville and Mechanicsburg Camp 
Meetings, that it was in the hands of Mr. Kennedy, 
of Griggsville. He is a good singer, and did 
efficient service. He uses a cornet, plays finely ; 
makes it helpful in devotion, and enters into this 
service with a spirit that betokens his deep inter- 
est in the work, and impresses the people with 
the thought that his worship is of the heart. The 
summing up of this ten days' work we give in the 
words of the Jacksonville Journal: 

" The Camp Meeting has come to a close, and 
all who have taken an active part in the meetings 
are confident that great good has been accom- 
plished and that the meetings have been a feast 
of fat things to many persons. It is impossible 
to estimate the good results of any camp meeting. 
The sermons, exhortations, testimonials, songs 
and prayers, will, perhaps, exert an influence for 
good as long as time shall last. How many per- 



ZVZ EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

sons were converted and how many received the 
blessing of ' ' perfect love ' ' cannot very well be 
estimated. At almost all of the altar exercises 
held at the close of the different services a num- 
ber of persons knelt at the altar for the prayers 
of Christians. Many persons were greatly blessed 
during the meetings. Sinners were converted and 
professing Christians were led into higher life and 
a closer walk with God„and both sinners and Chris- 
tians heard truths presented in an earnest, loving 
manner, that they will remember as long as they 
live. 

' ' The Christian workers who have been labor- 
ing in the camp ground for ten days have been 
greatly strengthened and encouraged b}' laboring 
side by side with each other for a few days, and 
have gone to their homes under a new inspiration, 
and have determined to do better work than ever 
before for God in trying to save souls. All who 
have heard the sermons of Revs. Wilson, Jones 
and others during these meetings, will feel grate- 
ful to them for their earnest, eloquent, loving- 
words of truth." 



OF REV. a. W. WILSON. 223 

Mechanicsburg Camp Meeting. 



This meeting was under the supervision of the 
pastor, Eev. J. B. Colwell, and the leadership of 
Mr. Wilson. In revival efforts of this kind the 
division of labor is such as to render a careful 
analysis a difficult and almost impossible thing. 
There are too many actors and ministerial laborers 
to make even mention of them by name, or to par- 
ticularize as to the performance of each during the 
meeting. Ministers from varied fields gathered 
here from day to day, and both enjoyed the de- 
lightful services of this occasion, and performed 
efficient labor for the Master. Very full reports 
of this meeting were made in the Morning Moni- 
tor, of Springfield, 111. 

A feature of both this and the Jacksonville 
Camp Meeting was the presence of YezeroMotora, 
a Japanese student of Boston Theological Institute. 

He was converted to Christianity by one of 
our missionaries. He is a native of Tokio, Japan, 
and belongs to the higher educated class. He 
fully understands all the teachings and traditions 
of the people of the Orient, knows the doctrines 
of Confucius, and was highly educated in that 
theory, but having embraced Christianity, he was 
disinherited by his father, and came to this coun- 
try to learn fully the languages and teachings of 
the blessed gospel he had embraced. His address 



224 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

was very instructive, and was listened to with 
deep interest by a large audience. 

This meeting commenced August 14, and con- 
cluded the 22d. The Monitor said August 18 : 

"The meetings have been increasing in interest 
at every session, until the services are almost one 
continual meeting. There is scarcely an hour dur- 
ing the day and till 10 o'clock at night but what 
you can hear either the voice of prayer or some of 
the beautiful songs of Zion wafted on the air at 
the grand stand, or in the tents. The meetings 
have been more spiritual than ever before. The 
laborers more earnest in endeavoring to save them- 
selves and others, and their efforts are being- 
crowned with greater success, reminding one of 
the old-time camp meetings held near here years 
ago." 

The meetings were spiritual and good through- 
out, and many rejoiced in God's pardoning mercy, 
many in his comforting and purifying grace. 

The Monitor^ says of the Sabbath morning 
service : 

" Sunday morning the gentle rain commenced 
descending. The services at the grand stand were 
of a deep religious order, and the Love Feast was 
a most blessed meeting. Several arose and ex- 
pressed a desire to be saved. 

"At 10 : 30 a. m. a vast multitude had assem- 
bled, the entire seating capacity was filled to 



or rev. c. w. wiLsox. 225 

overflowing, and many hundreds could not get 
seats but had to remain standing. This large 
audience represented people from all over Sanga- 
mon and adjoining counties. The services at the 
grand stand opened by all singing 'Nearer my God 
to Thee,' led by Bro. Kennedy with his cornet. 
Rev. Dr. Short, of Jacksonville, delivered a grand 
and unanswerable sermon in defense of the Chris- 
tian religion, from the 19th chapter of Revela- 
tion, taking as his text a portion of the 12th 
verse: 'And on his head were many crowns.' 
Five thousand people listened in perfect silence to 
this grand sermon, as he portraj'ed the beauties 
and glorious triumphs of the Christian who places 
implicit trust in God. His closing address to 
the church as to their duty in spreading this gos- 
pel and upbuilding the Saviour's kingdom was 
very able and will long be remembered by all who 
heard him." 

We may in this place state, as it is fitting and 
needful to say before we close this record, that 
Mr. Wilson, after due time and proper delibera- 
tion, saw the way clear to change his relationship 
in life, and thereby secured a worthy helpmeet for 
him. 

On the 10th of June, 1884, he was united in 
marriage to MissElma M. Boggs, of Hays, Doug- 
las county, Ills. Mrs. Wilson is a worthy, noble- 
spirited Christian lady, one who is active in church 
work, and promises to be an efficient helper to 



22<) EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Mr. Wilson in his evangelistic labor. During 
this camp meeting Mrs. Wilson did good service 
in conducting the children's meeting, held at 2 
o'clock in the afternoon. 

Of one of the last days of the meetings the 
Monitor makes the following mention : 

"Between the hours of 6 and 7 o'clock the 
camp was made to resound with songs and prayer 
at the various tents around the square. Method- 
ism, with its grand membership and churches, 
has become a great power in this land, and the 
great increase in its membership the last few years 
have been marvelous. It still moves grandly on 
with well-trained and well-organized machinery, 
carrying the masses with it. 

"At 8 p. m., Tuesday, 'Rock of Ages' was 
wafted on the breeze, and prayer followed by Bro. 
Seymore, of Jacksonville. Rev, Wilson con- 
ducted a brief praise meeting, after which he said 
his text was a question, and would be found in the 
3rd verse, 2d chapter of Hebrews : 'How shall 
we escape if we neglect so great salvation?' He 
showed the fallacy of people claiming to be 'the' 
Church of God, and having no power of godli- 
ness, but depending on forms and baptism of 
water for their salvation. We must possess the 
spirit of the blessed Master, and live it out in our 
lives. Then we are Christians, and it matters not 
what church we belong to. 

" He did not believe that men are the beet at 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 227 

conversions, but that as they continually live close 
to the side of the precious Saviour, they become 
more and more like Him, and their closing hours 
on earth should be their best hours. He showed 
that the many excuses men make for not accept- 
ing this great salvation, and closed with an earn- 
est appeal to all to come and seek the Saviour and 
accept His salvation. Several came to the altar, 
among the number aged men, and several were 
converted. The meeting closed with much Chris- 
tian rejoicing and hand-shaking." 

Thus amid rejoicings ran on these services from 
day to day, closing most pleasantly with many 
treasured memories of blessing and privilege, and 
many incentives to religious activity, and greater 
faithfulness in future life. 

With hopeful adieus, the multitudes that had 
thronged this consecrated spot melted at last 
away, leaving the great forest tabernacle voiceless, 
except as nature's songsters pour forth here their 
daily matins. We here conclude the sketchings 
that pertain to Mr. Wilson's personal work. 

The Southern Illinois Conference at its Session 
in Fairfield, Sept. 24, 1884, continued him, at his 
request, in the supernumerary relation. We shall 
rejoice if he shall find enlarged success in his work 
of preaching Christ, and in his future endeavors 
to save souls. Since Conference he has conducted 
a meeting at Coffeyville, Kansas, where nearly one 
hundred persons made a profession of religion. 



228 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



INVISIBLE AGENCIES. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



II. Kings vi., 16,1 7: "16. And he answered, Fear not: for 
they that be with us are more than they that be with them. 

" 17. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee open 
his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes 
of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain 
was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha." 

/. Chron. xiv., 15: "15. And it shall be, when thou shalt 
hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees that 
then thou shalt go out to battle : for God is gone forth before 
thee to smite the host of the Philistines." 



" The memory of their loveliness 
Shall round our weary pathway smile, 
Like moonlight when the sun has set, 
A sweet and tender radiance yet." 



em 



T IS the purpose of this chapter to take some 
account of the influence on the worker and 
on those he seeks to move, of the unseen, 
yet intensely active beings of another sphere, 
who once moved among us as our fathers, mothers, 
brothers, sisters, husbands, wives and children, 
and whose memory is one of the most precious 
heritages of kindred left behind them. "They 
are not lost but gone before," and in some inde- 
finable sense are the leaders of the living. May 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 229 

not those called in the days of their childhood or 
of their activity and usefulness, contribute more 
to the well-being of human society to all those 
silent and invisible forces, giving shape and course 
to human destiny than would the active labors 
of their lives if they had lived for years. In 
some way God joins in harmonious movement the 
visible and the invisible in the great spiritual con- 
flict of the world, and declares emphatically, "the 
dead yet speak." 

There is such a thing as "the spirit of the dead 
that walks the earth." There is a continuation of 
influence, subtle, unknown, unconscious it may 
be, that gives color to character, controls in action, 
gives inspiration in effort in the varied lines of 
human duty, and forces itself in unseen channels, 
as one of the most important factors of earth's 
activities. 

Somehow the "mantle" of the innocent and good 
does "fall" on kindred ones, as with strained 
eye they gaze upward to see the departing form 
and catch the vision of the fiery chariot in its 
heavenward pathway. 

" Can that one be dead 

Whose spiritual influence is upon his kind? 

He lives in glory, and his sleeping dust 

Has more of life than half its breathing mould." 

They who have left us (saddened, pained, and 
with the feeling of irreparable loss at their going), 



230 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

have often enriched us in all that goes to make 
life more beautiful and noble, in the sweet mem- 
ories that cluster round them. In mystic form 
they go to the farthest ends of earth, and to the 
utmost verge of time. At some period, in some 
remote region of the world, the re-appearance of 
kindred scenes, the incidents of time or place, 
may call to mind the form, or life, or dying scene 
of dear departed ones, and a new chord be struck 
vibrating in unison with child, or mother's love, 
and words and acts of these buried ones reappear, 
so that the stout and hitherto unyielding heart 
shall bend and victory crown the silent forces that 
have been marshalled in the memory. 

" Mysterious is the viewless chain 

That biuds dead years and wakes again, 
With an electric thrill, 

Familiar voices of the past, 

To sweep the present as a blast 

That heeds no 'peace be still.' " 

Who would have thought that at that distant 
place and far-off period the memory of the dead 
would rise to assert a sway so wonderful and all- 
controlling. That the seed-grain planted in the 
hour of mourning and loss, would germinate and 
bring forth fruit in after years in the soul's com- 
plete reformation and delivery. 

Yet such is God's order among the invisible 
forces of the spiritual realm. 

The child-life is prolonged through a generation 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 231 

by the recollection of it, and its innocence, beauty, 
and even its unearthliness have been written in 
living forms to take shape again and again, and be 
repeated over and over for an age. 

" When death strikes clown the innocent and young 

From every fragile form from which he lets 

The parting spirit free, 

A hundred virtues rise 

In shapes of mercy, charity, and love, 

To walk the world and bless it. 

Of every tear, 
That sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves 
Some good is born, some gentler nature comes." 

Such forces have more than wonted potency in 
revival times. Every revivalist more or less 
evokes the mystic power of these silent and un- 
seen agencies. 

Christ is the superhuman form of this spirit in- 
fluence, man's the circumscribed and human. 
How the presence of Jesus is multiplied ten thous- 
and fold by his decease and final departure from 
the world ! He who in his lifetime walked the 
Judean highways in his daily ministrations, known 
intimately to the few, seen by favored Jews, and 
heard by the merest fragment of the peoples, 
goes now in the higher sense into intimacy with 
every man, enters as a familiar fireside guest, not 
alone into the Mary's and Martha's and Matthew's 
homes, but into every family circle, and all the 
homes, of all the lands. How His spirit walks 



±.Y>. EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

abroad ! How His departure has given force to 
all the words He spake, to all the miracles He 
wrought, to all His acts of mercy, and efficiency 
to every agency for good He set in motion while 
He lived ! 

He said : — "It is expedient for you that I go 
away." All man's human instincts would have 
retained him, yet the disciples reaped a rich fruit- 
age from his departure, in the added spiritual 
influence that found enlargement by his bodily 
removement from the earth, while each added 
year, and decade, and century, marks the increase 
of that power. Now such is true, in lesser measure, 
of any of God's children moulded and fashioned 
to reflect the image of the Divine Redeemer, 
whose spirit breathes in human forms, and lives 
forever in the forces organized in life and re- 
inforced by death. We are wont to think of the 
living as nearly the sole agents of religious work. 
The}' are a large division, it is true, yet the larger 
working force is made up of the "innumerable 
company of angels, and the spirits of just men 
made perfect," whose unseen presence rests as a 
continual benediction on the earth. 

In truth : — 

"The body may lie mouldering in the grave, 
But the soul goes marching on." 

The strains of music linger long after the touch 
of the performer ceases. The musician who 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 233 

evoked the melody may be forgotten, when the 
voice and song, the harmony and numbers, may 
linger more sweetly voiced than when the living 
artist poured them forth so fresh and free upon 
delighted ears. 

Let none of the great army of religious workers 
think that God's summons to another sphere, or 
call to a new mode of being, by snapping asunder 
the cords of life, necessarily means an end of 
earthly usefulness, or a discontinuance of our 
connexion with the active agencies of earth for 
doing good. Few of us know our indebtedness, 
or can realize our obligations to those who live 
alone in memory. Our fathers, mothers, wives, 
and children are out of sight, not out of mind, 
are released from earthly suffering, but not from 
earthly service. 

" God calls our loved ones, but we lose not wholly 
What he has given ; 

They live on earth in thought and deed as truly 
As in His heaven." 

Even the "little ones," whom the Father has 
removed from us by a seemingly untimely death, 
have not gone before any useful mission had been 
fulfilled on earth, and with none of the fruits of 
this life to bear to the garner of heaven. No! 
They have imparted an inspiration by their pas- 
sage through the doors of birth and death, to con- 
tinue as a legacy of purity and sweetness in this 



234 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

world of sin and bitterness. Then for years after 
their departure their ministrations are continued, 
and by some unknown law of contact they 
touch the springs of human action and incite to 
kind and noble deeds. In this, to us, indefinable 
presence, they find access where the living actor 
would be excluded, or, if permitted, would find 
his most ardent pleas would be unavailing. 

There is no human power that avails to exclude 
this presence, — so in a peculiar spirit force the 
angel wife, or child, or mother, goes to shops, 
and stores, and factories, and mills, and offices, 
and counting houses, and marts of trade, and 
halls of legislation, and palaces, and become the 
monitors of men and silent pleaders for humanity. 
So they become the successful advocates of 
orphan children, distressed widows, the maimed, 
and blind, and deaf, the sick and dying, and the 
multitudes perishing because they know not 
Christ. 

No, they have not lived in vain, when some 
lives are better for them, when harshness is over- 
come, when worldliness is subdued, when sym- 
pathy for human sorrow is increased, when 
charity and benevolence take on enlarged and 
Christ-like forms, and agencies are set on foot to 
work for centuries for God. Thus workers in 
the cause of Christ have been stimulated to com- 
plete self-abnegation, to entire devotion to their 



OF REV. G. W. WTLSCMN. 235 

chosen lines of effort, as could never have been 
but for the remembrance of sainted child, or wife, 
or friend. And preachers have preached with 
such power and pathos, such sense of nearness of 
the heavenly world, such indifference to earthly 
allurements and charms, as could only come by 
the sense of angel form that possessed the mind, 
and hung like an ever-present glory on the path- 
way. Men are influenced often more by those 
who have gone before than by those who are left 
behind. They have furnished a continuous force 
to propel men forward in the ways of duty and 
religion. Who has not hastened in his work and 
been inspired to intenser devotion to it by the 
memory of the loved, whose very silence has been 
more eloquent than words ! So men have lived 
better, achieved more, done, and given, and 
suffered more, than would have been possible 
without these spirit influences moving their in- 
most being. 

"Their moral life, their influence is not gone, 
When the material bonds around us break; 
In other minds their spirit still lives on, 
Though dead they speak." 

The death bed scene and words of Wesley are 
vivid yet, and Bishop McKendree's "all is well," 
rings as a triumphant note from the border land, 
to give added courage to thousands of God's 
militant host, as they follow through the vale. 



236 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

Thus after they have "entered into rest" their 
jjjood service to mankind continues in lar^e or 
lesser measure. And not they alone who did 
years of efficient service in the world, but even 
the child-life that faintly dawned, then sank into 
the night of death, is made a benediction and a 
blessing on the earth. Bishop Ames embalmed 
forever the memory of his beautiful child (that 
was burned to a blackened mass), in the pathetic 
relation of the incident in his grand sermon on 
" Have faith in God." Bishop Bowman said, 
and doubtless has said it to many thousands to 
such purpose as God can only know : — " That the 
joy which my little Fannie left with me is, I 
think, the nearest of anything to the joy of 
heaven, for it was never mixed with a pain 
she gave me." Little Lulu Harrison, dying 
when four years of age, has been speaking, not 
alone to the hearts of those bereaved, but for 
more than twenty years her dying words, so won- 
derful, have been voiced to hundreds in sermon 
and exhortation. Theodore L. Cuyler has been 
more active and more useful, too, since his little 
daughter left the "empty crib" of which he 
writes so touchingly. 

Our only dear one left us, too, while we were 
planning to prepare him to do the work of a long 
and busy life. Yet he is living now, in larger 
sense than if he had tarried in the world. In 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 237 

some way God seems to enlarge the sphere. 
Said one, while many have said similar things, — 
" Osman's life, short as it was, was not in vain, 
for we are all better for having had him." 

God's living agents are not enough, so he 
harnesses as one, the forces of the living and the 
dead. A poor Hindoo mother saw with grief and 
pain her child slowly pass through the vale of 
death and beyond her reach and sight, yet the 
death of that infant child led her to the Saviour. 
Far and wide He sows the seed and plants mor- 
tality in early graves, to bloom in earth's sterile 
soil, and bear such fruits as to make it seem once 
more an Eden. 

"Still shines the light of holy lives 

Like starbeams over doubt; 

Each sainted memory, Christ -like, drives 

Some dark possession out." 
Many a worker has drawn fresh inspiration 
from the memory of the sainted dead, and has 
gone forth to wider fields, intenser activities, 
steadier devotion, and enlarged success, with this 
new heritage of power. No endowment is so 
costly, none of higher import, or of more endur- 
ing character than this. It is only less than the 
direct divine influence upon the heart and life. 

In public ministrations the memory of sainted 
ones is again and again invoked to give point and 
energy to truth, to arouse the emotions of the 
unfeeling hearer and to touch responsive chords in 
hearts unmoved by every other force. 



238 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

To portray the incidents of a pious life, the 
triumphs of Christian death, the words and 
scenes of life's latest hour, is within the province 
of every Christian worker who would wed every 
agency in the realm of truth to his work in arous- 
ing insensate men to activity and duty. 

"Thus saints, that seem to die in earth's wide strife, 

Only win double life ; 
They have but left our weary ways. 
To live in memory here, in heaven by love and praise." 

How many of the grand sermons, the most 
effective appeals of evangelistic workers, and the 
most hearty and successful efforts of Christian 
people of eveiy class have been the direct outflow 
of that prolific source of good, the cherished 
memory of the dead. 

Mr. Wilson has had a spirit force in constant 
action near him that has doubtless nerved him in 
many a valiant conflict in the Master's cause. 
What a ministration of good to him has "May, " 
the " little one," and Jennie, the sainted wife, 
been in his many struggles for victory in revival 
work, in the years since child and wife were re- 
moved to heaven. In some sense, if not in the 
express manner had in mind by the dying wife, 
her promise has been fulfilled : "If such a thing 
as coming back is possible, I will be with you." 

Mr. Wilson was doubtless by nature adapted to 
evangelistic work, but never could so fully have 
consecrated himself to it, nor so efficiently have 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 239 

performed it, if bereavement had not come 
to send him adrift from the comforts and delights 
of home, and to lead him to find his greatest joy 
in the rejoicing of others, and his completest rest 
in incessant labor. 




240 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 



CONCLUSION 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



" How blest the sacred tie that binds, 
In sweet communion kindred minds! 
How swift the heavenly course they run, 
Whose hearts, and faith, and hopes are one! 
Nor shall the glowing flame expire, 
When dimly burns frail nature's Are; 
Then shall they meet in realms above, 
A heavon of joy, a heaven of love." 

OW many helps in Christian life ! How 
many incentives to perseverance ! How 
many dangers in going backward ! So 
many are hoping we may succeed, some are 
looking for us to fail, and all are interested 
spectators of our heavenly race. Our work 
in this world, religiously, will partake largely 
of the character we may choose to give it. We 
can elect whether our stay here is to be greatly 
to our advantage and helpful to others, or result 
in sad loss to us and disaster to those around us. 
We are in a field where seeds are to be sown of 
the kind that we may choose. But be they good 
or bad, many or few, they are to germinate by 
fixed laws of vegetation, and brine; forth fruit in 



OF REV. «. W. WILSON. 241 

varied fold, both for this and the life to come. 

"We scatter seeds with careless hand, 

And dream we ne'er shall see them more; 

But for a thousand years 

Their fruit appears, 

Iu weeds that mar the laud, 

Or healthful store." 
The Christian ought to be a skilled and ready 
workman. He ought to know when and how. 
He ought always to feel himself owe of an associa- 
tion. There may be stronger in it, possibly 
many weaker. If stronger, they should help him; 
— if weaker, he should help them. If any are 
young, naturally they look to the older. If any 
are starting, they follow in the footsteps of those 
who have gone before. Where can the Christian 
turn but responsibilities shall meet him ? Where 
can he go but some one will see him ? What can 
he do but some one will do like him? What 
neglects can he make but some one will plead his 
case as an excuse ? What duties can he perform 
but others will be incited to them by his example ? 
What formalities, in religious life, may you 
assume that your child or neighbor will not 
imitate? If you are spiritless in worship, what 
dulness may it beget in others ? If you make it 
no matter of conscience to be in your place and do 
your share of service, may not others be led into 
a conscienceless way of living, -and you in this aid 
in growing up a powerless and inefficient body 



242 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

of believers? Then set up a high standard of 
religion. Make it a thing of going, doing, grow- 
ing, and it will tell for good around 3^011. 
"They teach us how to live; 
With blameless life, girt round with purity, 
Lowly in heart, in soul and purpose high, 
Sweet lessons do they give 
Of faith, of love, of hope ; for all they shone 
Brightest in Christian lives, they made their own." 
Some things you may not know. 'Tis 
well God hides them, lest you might be 
satisfied with what was done, or feel elated by 
your known success. You may not know how you 
have encouraged the desponding, comforted the 
sorrowing, strengthened the weak, confirmed the 
wavering, started anew the halting, and helped 
by word and deed a whole community to a 
higher plane of living ! 

"Thou knowest not what argument 
Thy life, to they neighbors creed has lent." 
One thing, the limits of Christian experience 
and Christian usefulness are very wide. 

We can call to mind no renowned disciples 
of the Saviour who ever exhausted the provisions 
of grace for spiritual growth, or touched the 
farthest bounds of influence for good upon their 
fellow men. The saintly Fletcher, the earnest 
Carvasso, the pure-minded Cowper, the deeply- 
experienced Bunyan, the intensely active Wesley, 
the learned Clarke, the instructive Henry, the 
useful Whitefield, and the valiant Luther, none 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 243 

or all of them, exhausted the resources of grace, 
nor the capacities of a divinely and graciously 
endowed human being. 

But how low our experience, when its possibili- 
ties are so high ! How narrow the confines of 
our influence when God has ordained the range 
so wide ! How small our demands with a supply 
so limitless ! None of the holy, or the happy, or 
the useful, of any age, had any promise of a 
measure of grace beyond our reach, or a spiritu- 
ality unattainable to us, or a moral perfection to 
which we need not aspire. Possibly opportunities 
are greater or less, and abilities are varied, yet 
none are limited in experimental progress. 

Has not the young convert a bright prospect 
before him? May not his faith, bringing to his 
view a pardoning Saviour, bring visions of contin- 
uous grace, " saving to the uttermost !" 

"When man is born anew, 
And beings perfect bliss is given, 
Lo, a new Eden starts in view, 
While angel-harps rejoice in heaven, 
'Tis wondrous all, divinely bright, 
And the new creature walks in light." 

But just here the limits may be set by man's 
misconception of the gracious plan, and the false 
assumption that compressed in this mom of re- 
generated life, are the fullest measures 
of redeeming grace. 'Tis true this work is 
alone, as an introductory passage in religious 



244 EVANGELISM, AND EEVIVAL WORK 

life, but stands inseparably connected with 
every stage of its future growth. This is 
the starting point, but not the goal. It is " from 

strength to strength." It is as the growing corn, 

© © © © 

— "the blade, the stalk, the ear, the full corn in 
the ear." It contemplates no stopping point this 
side of heaven. Each part of religious life has 
its own peculiar phase of beauty, excellence, and 
sweetness. The morning freshness does not 
excel the noontide glory, nor the eventide 
serenity and peace. It is a beauteous whole if not 
marred, and cramped, and minified, by human 
blindness and perversity. It is a development as 
marvelous and divine as that which wrought out 
from chaos a world of order and of beauty. It is 
God's process of evolution in the soul's redemp- 
tion, delivery, and purification. It is a thing of 
stages, as clear in its outline to a living faith, as the 
ladder and its rounds to patriarchal vision. The 
whole teaching of the word of God impresses the 
idea of continuous attainment. There is not a 
point where the experience may not be deepened 
in the things of God, nor a state where new 
delights may not spring to life by the spirit's 
power as flowers in the garden of the Lord. 

But how the young need incentives to progres- 
sion in experimental and practical religion ! How 
many seem to get the idea of " here we rest." 
How feAv catch the grand inspiration that leads 



OF REV. G. W. WILSOIV. 245 

them to say, " forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things 
which are before, I press toward the mark for the 
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 
How few "hunger and thirst after righteousness !" 

" for a glimpse of Him my soul adores! 
As the chased hart, amid the desert waste, 
Pants for the living stream; for Him who made her, 
So pants the thirsty soul, amid the blank 
Of sublunary joys." 

We put too much stress upon the " things 
that are seen," too little on "the invisible," but 
substantial and enduring. We chase the shadows 
and forget the substance ! We live too much in 
the realm of sight, too little in that of faith. 
What communings and longings may dwell in the 
bosom of the saintly pilgrim. 

" All my thoughts which upward winging 

Bathe where Thy own light is springing, 

All my yearnings to be free, 

Are as echoes answering Thee. 

! who the speed of bird and wind, 
And sunbeam's glance will lend me, 
That soaring upward I may find 
My resting place and home in Thee?" 

When the day comes that God's people shall 
pant, and long, and thirst for the higher revela- 
tions of Himself, in His spirit's presence and 
power; then, indeed, shall the Church "look 
forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as 
the sun, and terrible as an army w 7 ith banners." 



2 4 ft EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK 

When God's people shall he a " holy people," 
then shall men everywhere "take knowledge of 
them that they have been with Christ and learned 
of Him," and a mighty savor for good shall go 
forth from the disciples of the Saviour. O for 
the day when religion shall assert its highest 
claims and exert its fullest influence ! 

A devoted layman said to Pres. Payne, of the 
Ohio Wesleyan University, lately: — "After I 
professed religion I made this record of my plan : 
I solemnly purpose from this time forward to 
serve God as a calling, and do business to pay 
expenses.' ' Some such sentiment ought to govern 
the action of every intelligent Christian. It does 
not, hence the poverty of religious life. How 
low is our spirituality, how small our measure of 
enjoyment, how feeble our moral force ! Where 
are Christians all seeking to reach the highest 
standard of moral excellence and devotional life? 
Where shall we go to find a holy emulation in 
the things of God ? 

Who shall be most pure, most humble, most 
devout, most useful? are questions to be often 
asked in our meditative moods, and to be answer- 
id daily in our Godly living. 

" O let us stir each other up, 

Our faith, our works to approve, 

By holy purifying hope 

And the sweet task of love." 
We rejoice that there are some in all the 



OF REV. G. W. WILSON. 247 

churches who are animated by a holy zeal, and 
show by sweet, pure lives, and unostentatious 
piety, that they have found the " more excellent 
way," and invite by a bright example rather than 
by a loud profession, to the higher walks of 
religious experience. How much there is for us ! 
How little do any of us know of the deep things, 
the rich things, the "prepared things" of His 
redemptive mercy ! What wonders in his grace ! 
"Eye hath not seen, nor heart perceived" the "ful- 
ness of joy" — nor our steps measured, the lengths 
and breadths of the "riches of His grace," in Jesus 
Christ. No ! Here is an everlasting theme, and 
an inexhaustible supply for every human being. 

" He kept not back His Son, 
But hath given Him for our good, 
And our safety He hath won 
By the shedding of His blood. 
O thou fathomless abyss ! 
My weak powers but strive in vain, 
Knowledge of Thy depths to gain ; 
Man knows no such love as this ; 
It alone is full, aud free, 
And lasting as eternity." 

To the higher walks, the diviner joys, the 
intenser activities of religious life, let us all go 
on. Then somewhere, when alike we have been 
fitted for that end by His purifying grace and 
saving power, Pastor and Evangelist, Member 
and Convert, shall join that ransomed throng, — 



248 EVANGELISM, AND REVIVAL WORK. 

saying with a loud voice, " Worthy is the lamb 
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, 
and blessing." Amen! 

" There we shall end our sad complaints 

And weary, mournful days, 

And join with the triumphant saints, 

That sing the Saviour's praise. 

Our knowledge of that life is small, 

The eye of faith is dim, 

But 'tis enough that Christ knows all, 
nd we shall be with him." 




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